Political Conventions Rely On FCC For Coordinating Spectrum

Make no mistake who rules the floor at the upcoming national party conventions; it’s the FCC and Coordinating Committee Chairman Louis Libin.
 
Both the Republican and Democratic party events taking place in Cleveland and Philadelphia respectively rely on spectrum coordination to make their messages and each other heard across a noisy arena.  According to Inside Radio, Libin will be the single point of contact to make it all happen via the Broadcast Auxiliary Service (BAS) stations, which will allow the networks to transmit between the convention floor and the studios. Continue Reading

FCC Spectrum Auction Draws Some Major Participants While Others Skittish

In the high-stakes auction house that is the FCC, 62 bidders have put down their ‘earnest money’ in anticipation of obtaining more spectrum.  Major wireless names such as Comcast, Verizon, AT&T, T-Mobile and Dish have taken their seats, paddles in hand, for the airwaves auction that begins on August 16th.

The FCC said the price of this particular 126 MHz ‘lot’ obtained from broadcasters to be sold for wireless use is up to $86.4 billion. Continue Reading

FCC Votes 5-0 To Push Spectrum Boundaries

“The decision we make Thursday could actually be the most important decision this commission makes this year,” FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler told members of Congress during an oversight hearing on Tuesday. 
 
Yesterday in a 5-to-0 vote, the FCC adopted new rules for wireless broadband operations in frequencies above 24 GHz, making the United States the first country in the world to make this spectrum available for next generation wireless services. The FCC issued a statement saying “these rules set a strong foundation for the rapid advancement to next-generation 5G networks and technologies in the United States.” Continue Reading

NAB Urges FCC To Go “Full Speed Ahead On Next Gen TV”

NAB General Counsel Rick Kaplan, in a statement issued last night, urged the FCC to move forward on the Next Gen TV proceedings being held today in Washington setting the stage for the next generation of wireless services.

“At its monthly open meeting [today], the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) votes on an order setting the stage for the next generation of wireless services. The order – part of the “Spectrum Frontiers” proceeding – will make expansive amounts of high band spectrum available for wireless services, including next-generation 5G service. This vote will come just nine months after the FCC issued its Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) seeking comment on this matter,” Kaplan said. Continue Reading

Verizon Claims Victory In Race To 5G Specification

Earlier this week, Verizon announced it had completed its 5G-radio specification, reports FierceWireless.com, claiming it is the first U.S. carrier to complete the specification. The completed spec comes after a year’s worth of work by the company’s 5G Technology Forum, a group that includes Cisco, Ericsson, Intel, LG, Nokia, Samsung and Qualcomm Technologies. 
 
Verizon said the completed radio specification will enable the industry to move closer toward the deployment of 5G technology. In the short term, it will enable chipset and network vendors, as well as mobile operators, “to develop interoperable solutions and contribute to pre-standard testing and fabrication,” Fierce Wireless reports. Continue Reading

Facebook Announces OpenCellular, A Towerless Option For The Third World?

On Friday, the tech-giant Facebook announced its plan to launch OpenCellular, reports NetworkWorld.com, a mobile infrastructure platform that is designed to expand internet access to parts of the developing world.
 
“Facebook has no intention of transforming itself into a bona fide Internet Service Provider” said Wired.com, “and it’s not interested in selling this new hardware. The aim is to give it away so that a community of players can build networks,” Wired said. “Google is pushing in a similar direction building high-flying drones and high-altitude balloons, the difference is Facebook is freely sharing its design, a way of accelerating the progress of new technology that has served the company so well in the past,” Wired said. Continue Reading

Sacramento Kings’ New Arena Will Keep Fans Talking

 
When the Sacramento Kings’ $507 million new stadium opens in October, it will boast a hanging bundle of video screens 84 feet long, just shorter than the court. It will also have technology that’s much less visible—the arena is being built with a high-capacity WiFi system intended to give fans fast internet access on their mobile devices, similar to what’s offered by a home broadband connection according to MIT Technology Review. The arena’s WiFi network alone will be able to handle “over 500,000 Snapchat posts per second,” said a team spokesman. Continue Reading