Wi-Fi for White Space
Mike Banos
February 25, 2006
Two weeks ago to the day, the Consumers Union and Free Press in the United States endorsed U.S. Senator George Allen's (R-VA) Wireless Innovation Act of 2006 (WINN Act) that aims to bring affordable broadband to all Americans by freeing unused spectrum within the broadcast frequency for use by providers of wireless broadband and for other services.
The legislation would direct the Federal Communications Commission to ?move quickly? to free-up valuable but unused broadcast airwaves - known as empty channels, or white spaces- which could be used for wireless broadband. In most markets, only half of the broadcast channels are actually used by television stations.
In their letter of support sent to Allen, the two groups thanked the senator for his leadership in introducing the bipartisan WINN Act, and for his commitment to bringing affordable broadband to all Americans. ?Your legislation will go far in providing greater consumer choice in broadband, enhanced competition in telecommunications services, and new opportunities for technological and entrepreneurial innovation. We applaud your commitment to this important issue and strongly support your legislation.?
The two consumer groups pointed out that even as high-speed Internet access and adoption has been increasing in the US, consumers were being neglected. ?The problem is particularly acute in rural and urban areas that either lack access entirely, or have only a single service to choose from. Adoption of broadband in rural areas is only half that of urban parts of the country. And adoption by average income families is roughly half that for wealthy households. Without broadband Internet access and other wireless services, Americans in rural and under served urban areas will continue to be stranded on the wrong side of the digital divide. Communities without affordable high-speed Internet access will lose jobs as businesses that need it locate elsewhere and their residents will continue to face increasingly serious disadvantages in educational and health care services.?
Ha! Now that?s what my grandpa would call a pretty kettle of fish! Try telling that to our Great Unwashed in the urban poor slums, who like the Ancient Mariner in Samuel Taylor Coleridge?s opus lamented, ?Water, water everywhere -- but not a drop to drink!? Yes, Virginia, they could have access to cyberspace and a lot of other value added services besides like Bluetooth and Wi-Fi but have not the wherewithal to tap it since these require PCs or high-end cellular phones they won?t be having in their lifetimes. But we digress. To continue with Consumers Union and Free Press? letter to Allen:
Wireless, or Wi-Fi, broadband, because of its low deployment costs and ability to reach distant consumers without costly infrastructure or equipment, offers the greatest opportunity for expanding broadband access to consumers who lack it. Indeed, today, wireless Internet services providers and communities are already using the airwaves to deliver broadband to consumers in sparsely populated rural areas who have never had access to it. Broadband and other innovative wireless services offer the promise of increased economic development and jobs, enhanced market competition, improved delivery of e-government services, and accelerated universal, affordable Internet access for all Americans.
Unfortunately, airwaves suitable for wireless broadband are in short supply. Currently, Wi-Fi broadband providers must rely on airwaves that limit the ability of wireless signals to pass through walls and other obstacles. And they compete with hundreds of other wireless consumer devices that use the same airwaves. Without access to more and better airwaves, the promise of Wi-Fi broadband will be frustrated.?
Now, as many young Pinoys who?d ever used a PC or cellphone already know, Wi-Fi is already available in many of our urban areas, even where it?s considered the relative boondocks like our Cagayan de Oro. It?s just that at this stage, it?s probably comparable to where the cellular phone industry in the Philippines was before prepaid services became widely available and transformed our country overnight into the text messaging (or SMS, short message service) capital of the world. So that means that while there?s now more areas where you can access Wi-Fi for ?free? (read: access through prepaid Wi-Fi services), there?s not too many of them around yet and you?d either need a PC or laptop computer to access it, or for the better heeled, a relatively high-end cellular phone or PDA. So until our Wi-Fi service providers expand coverage of their ?free zones? to areas comparable in size to those covered by their present G2 cellphone coverage, the Philippines will not be able to tap the vast potentials of Wi-Fi broadband.
By directing the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC, the American equivalent of our National Telecommunication Commission or NTC) to move quickly to free-up valuable but unused broadcast airwaves - known as empty channels, or white spaces - for non exclusive use, Allen?s legislation seeks to set the legal framework needed to realize Wi-Fi?s vast potential for grassroots development in rural and urban poor America.
Each television market in the United States has fifty channels allocated for over-the-air, broadcast television. However, in most markets, fewer than half of these channels are actually used by television stations. In most rural areas, there are more empty channels than used channels. Even in urban areas, a substantial amount of spectrum could be made available for wireless broadband.
But as Consumers Union Senior Policy Analyst Jeannine Kenney and Free Press Policy Director Ben Scott correctly point out in their letter to Allen, ?These airwaves are far too valuable to consumers to allow them to lay dormant. Opening the white spaces for new and innovative technologies is an essential step toward bridging the digital divide, bringing 21st century telecommunications to rural areas and providing affordable access to all Americans.?
No doubt, if there remains to be a substantial amount of white spaces in rural and even many areas of urban U.S.A., I?m sure there?s even more of it in Philippine airspace considering how the development of television here has already been overtaken by satellite and cable TV, and with much of the spectrum within the broadcast frequency already allocated for G2 and G3 cellular mobile services.
Besides limited areas where it can be accessed, more widespread use of Wi-Fi in the Philippines is also constrained by the necessity for desktop or laptop PCs, or high-end cellular phones and PD As which remain relatively out of reach by the CD and E income markets that fueled the boom in the prepaid text messaging industry. But supply side economics does work, as the availability of the one peso text message proved so convincingly in our country, to the point that it has become a major driver of growth in the Philippine economy. And the availability of affordable cellphones has followed suit, so a similar development with Wi-Fi broadband wouldn?t be that far fetched if we go by our previous experience. Thorsten Veblen and John Maynard Keynes would have been proud!
Considering the development of prepaid text messaging service and its massive impact on the lifestyle of the less privileged in the Philippines, it becomes even more imperative for our legislators in Congress to work together in setting the stage for a competitive, marketplace solution to make available the benefits of adequate and affordable broadband to the less privileged in our rural and urban poor areas.
INDNJC-
The legislation would direct the Federal Communications Commission to ?move quickly? to free-up valuable but unused broadcast airwaves - known as empty channels, or white spaces- which could be used for wireless broadband. In most markets, only half of the broadcast channels are actually used by television stations.
In their letter of support sent to Allen, the two groups thanked the senator for his leadership in introducing the bipartisan WINN Act, and for his commitment to bringing affordable broadband to all Americans. ?Your legislation will go far in providing greater consumer choice in broadband, enhanced competition in telecommunications services, and new opportunities for technological and entrepreneurial innovation. We applaud your commitment to this important issue and strongly support your legislation.?
The two consumer groups pointed out that even as high-speed Internet access and adoption has been increasing in the US, consumers were being neglected. ?The problem is particularly acute in rural and urban areas that either lack access entirely, or have only a single service to choose from. Adoption of broadband in rural areas is only half that of urban parts of the country. And adoption by average income families is roughly half that for wealthy households. Without broadband Internet access and other wireless services, Americans in rural and under served urban areas will continue to be stranded on the wrong side of the digital divide. Communities without affordable high-speed Internet access will lose jobs as businesses that need it locate elsewhere and their residents will continue to face increasingly serious disadvantages in educational and health care services.?
Ha! Now that?s what my grandpa would call a pretty kettle of fish! Try telling that to our Great Unwashed in the urban poor slums, who like the Ancient Mariner in Samuel Taylor Coleridge?s opus lamented, ?Water, water everywhere -- but not a drop to drink!? Yes, Virginia, they could have access to cyberspace and a lot of other value added services besides like Bluetooth and Wi-Fi but have not the wherewithal to tap it since these require PCs or high-end cellular phones they won?t be having in their lifetimes. But we digress. To continue with Consumers Union and Free Press? letter to Allen:
Wireless, or Wi-Fi, broadband, because of its low deployment costs and ability to reach distant consumers without costly infrastructure or equipment, offers the greatest opportunity for expanding broadband access to consumers who lack it. Indeed, today, wireless Internet services providers and communities are already using the airwaves to deliver broadband to consumers in sparsely populated rural areas who have never had access to it. Broadband and other innovative wireless services offer the promise of increased economic development and jobs, enhanced market competition, improved delivery of e-government services, and accelerated universal, affordable Internet access for all Americans.
Unfortunately, airwaves suitable for wireless broadband are in short supply. Currently, Wi-Fi broadband providers must rely on airwaves that limit the ability of wireless signals to pass through walls and other obstacles. And they compete with hundreds of other wireless consumer devices that use the same airwaves. Without access to more and better airwaves, the promise of Wi-Fi broadband will be frustrated.?
Now, as many young Pinoys who?d ever used a PC or cellphone already know, Wi-Fi is already available in many of our urban areas, even where it?s considered the relative boondocks like our Cagayan de Oro. It?s just that at this stage, it?s probably comparable to where the cellular phone industry in the Philippines was before prepaid services became widely available and transformed our country overnight into the text messaging (or SMS, short message service) capital of the world. So that means that while there?s now more areas where you can access Wi-Fi for ?free? (read: access through prepaid Wi-Fi services), there?s not too many of them around yet and you?d either need a PC or laptop computer to access it, or for the better heeled, a relatively high-end cellular phone or PDA. So until our Wi-Fi service providers expand coverage of their ?free zones? to areas comparable in size to those covered by their present G2 cellphone coverage, the Philippines will not be able to tap the vast potentials of Wi-Fi broadband.
By directing the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC, the American equivalent of our National Telecommunication Commission or NTC) to move quickly to free-up valuable but unused broadcast airwaves - known as empty channels, or white spaces - for non exclusive use, Allen?s legislation seeks to set the legal framework needed to realize Wi-Fi?s vast potential for grassroots development in rural and urban poor America.
Each television market in the United States has fifty channels allocated for over-the-air, broadcast television. However, in most markets, fewer than half of these channels are actually used by television stations. In most rural areas, there are more empty channels than used channels. Even in urban areas, a substantial amount of spectrum could be made available for wireless broadband.
But as Consumers Union Senior Policy Analyst Jeannine Kenney and Free Press Policy Director Ben Scott correctly point out in their letter to Allen, ?These airwaves are far too valuable to consumers to allow them to lay dormant. Opening the white spaces for new and innovative technologies is an essential step toward bridging the digital divide, bringing 21st century telecommunications to rural areas and providing affordable access to all Americans.?
No doubt, if there remains to be a substantial amount of white spaces in rural and even many areas of urban U.S.A., I?m sure there?s even more of it in Philippine airspace considering how the development of television here has already been overtaken by satellite and cable TV, and with much of the spectrum within the broadcast frequency already allocated for G2 and G3 cellular mobile services.
Besides limited areas where it can be accessed, more widespread use of Wi-Fi in the Philippines is also constrained by the necessity for desktop or laptop PCs, or high-end cellular phones and PD As which remain relatively out of reach by the CD and E income markets that fueled the boom in the prepaid text messaging industry. But supply side economics does work, as the availability of the one peso text message proved so convincingly in our country, to the point that it has become a major driver of growth in the Philippine economy. And the availability of affordable cellphones has followed suit, so a similar development with Wi-Fi broadband wouldn?t be that far fetched if we go by our previous experience. Thorsten Veblen and John Maynard Keynes would have been proud!
Considering the development of prepaid text messaging service and its massive impact on the lifestyle of the less privileged in the Philippines, it becomes even more imperative for our legislators in Congress to work together in setting the stage for a competitive, marketplace solution to make available the benefits of adequate and affordable broadband to the less privileged in our rural and urban poor areas.
INDNJC-
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