FCC in your town

FCC Commissioners: Coming to Your Town

Posted by Sam Churchill on October 20th, 2008

FCC Commissioners may be in your town this week for their DTV Outreach program.

The FCC identified target television markets for specific DTV outreach, including all those markets in which more than 100,000 households or at least 15% of the households rely solely on over-the-air signals for television reception.

The five FCC Commissioners and senior Commission staff will visit these and other markets to raise awareness and educate consumers in the days leading up to the DTV transition on February 17, 2009.

Commissioner Jonathan Adelstein will be in Portland today, Monday Oct 20th, for two public town halls on the DTV transition:

• WHEN:
  October 20, 12:15-1 PM
• WHERE:Urban League Multi-Cultural Senior Center
  5325 NE MLK Blvd.
  Portland, OR 97211

• WHEN:
  October 20, 2-3:30 PM
• WHERE:
  Native American Cultural Center
  Portland State University
  710 SW Jackson Street
  Portland, OR 97201

Now’s your chance to bend their ear.

The FCC wants to auction the 2155-2180 MHZ band to the highest bidder. I think that’s a big mistake. Municipal wireless — using 2150 Mhz — would be faster, cheaper and more reliable than WiFi. Practical, even.

The range of 2150 Mhz WiMAX averages 3.5 miles (similar to 2.6 Mhz WiMAX), so each antenna tower might cover 10 sq miles. A 100 sq mile city might only need 10 towers. Each tower might require about $50K in gear, or $500K total.

Municipal WiFi networks typically costs $100K+ per sq mile ($10M per 100 sq mi.), requiring 30-40 nodes per sq mile, plus lots of backhaul gear. Ten million dollars vrs $500K. Which do you think is more likely to deliver cheap or “free” broadband to the home?

This new 25 MHz-wide band should be lightly regulated - like 3650 MHz - and dedicated to municipal wireless coverage. But 2150 won’t be “free” if the FCC “taxes” it.

Adelstein is the most sympathetic to digital divide issues of all the commissioners. I think 2150 Mhz should be dedicated to Municipal Broadband - defined as covering perhaps 80% of a city.

That band should be free — like WiFi. Like Radio. Like Television.

ATSC is a lost cause. Furgetaboutit. The NAB has nobody to blame but their own “leadership”.

source : dailywireless.org