[opendtv] Re: Tech Advisors Tell FCC to Launch Local Broadband Deployment Competition

John Shutt wrote:

> The problem in this country is a lack of broadband service to rural areas.
>
> Picocells and femtocells are best suited to urban and to a lesser degree
> suburban areas. Those locations already have several choices in broadband
> internet access.
>
> What exactly is going on at the FCC?

Not quite that easy. The FCC's push is not just for broadband, but for wireless 
broadband. Having adequate spectrum for wireless broadband is much more 
difficult in dense urban areas than anywhere else.

That's the main reason for wanting to grab spectrum from TV and other 
allocations. And yet, the lower frequencies that TV uses are not well suited 
for this at all.

Seems to me that rural broadband can be deployed using any number of spectrum 
allocations that have already been okayed. For example, use large rural 3G or 
4G cells for that. Or even use the TV white spaces. There should be plenty of 
TV white space available in rural locations. Deploy long range broadband links, 
e.g. even focused beams between fixed locations.

The way I see it, there's no excuse for the spectrum grab. In rural locations, 
you have available spectrum. In urban and suburban areas, if you must deploy a 
lot more wireless broadband, you're better off, by far, reducing cell size. 
That's how you leverage off the potentially huge bandwidth available in the 
existing fiber optic cabled networks in densely populated areas, instead of 
going the brute force route of just adding more RF spectrum.

I really think there's not enough drama doing it this way. The first reaction 
was to come in swinging, in a show of resolve.

Bert

 
 
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