[opendtv] News: After Global Agreement, Companies May Bid Higher at Wireless Auction in U.S.
- From: Craig Birkmaier <craig@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: OpenDTV Mail List <opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Mon, 19 Nov 2007 09:55:53 -0500
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/19/technology/19wireless.html?_r=1&th&emc=th&oref=slogin
After Global Agreement, Companies May Bid Higher at Wireless Auction in U.S.
By VICTORIA SHANNON
Published: November 19, 2007
PARIS, Nov. 18 - When and if Google, Apple, Yahoo and the other
potential bidders participate in the auction for wireless licenses in
the United States in January, the prices they offer could be the
first measure of the impact of the monthlong global radio-frequency
spectrum conference that ended in Geneva on Friday.
The companies' willingness to bet large amounts of money on the
licenses will demonstrate, in part, their confidence in the global
commercial market for services in a particular part of the spectrum,
the versatile 700-megahertz band of ultra-high frequencies.
Their confidence would probably be shakier - and their bids lower -
if that band had not been blessed last week by the more than 150
countries represented at the World Radiocommunication Conference,
which meets every four to five years to evaluate global rules on how
best to manage the airwaves. Google has said it might bid for a
United States wireless license, although applications are not due
until Dec. 3.
Because the conference elicited a global consensus, that confidence
should extend worldwide. The conference said that countries could use
the 700-megahertz slice for wireless broadband services like
cellphones, mobile TV and WiMax, although at each country's time of
choosing.
The conclusions of the conference, which operates under the auspices
of the International Telecommunication Union, a United Nations
agency, carry the weight of an international treaty.
"Most people in the industry believe this will be very important
going forward in terms of supplying new services and new technologies
to consumers around the world," said Richard Russell, who led the
150-member United States delegation, which included government and
industry representatives.
The auction of the frequencies was made possible because digital
television broadcasts require less bandwidth than analog TV, which is
now the main use of the 700-megahertz span. As countries move over
the next decade to digital TV, that valuable UHF spectrum becomes
available for other uses. The United States will go completely
digital in 2009.
Although the W.R.C. - whose abbreviation participants pronounce as
"work" - adjourned on Friday with a global sign-off on using that
spectrum for mobile broadband, not everyone was singing its praises.
The European Broadcasting Union, in particular, was disappointed that
the telecommunications agency decided to allow mobile services into
the UHF bands before knowing the effects of interference with digital
TV broadcast signals that would share the space. The union had urged
the conference to study the consequences and wait until its next
meeting, in 2011, to make a decision.
At the conference, a coalition of all the countries from the Americas
pushed through the compromise of allocating the spectrum but then
leaving the timing of its use up to national regulators. Many of the
large countries in Asia - including China, India, South Korea and
Japan - signed on to the American plan.
"Because of this conference, countries around the world have the
flexibility now to open up spectrum to wireless broadband at the time
of their choosing," said Mr. Russell, the United States delegation
leader.
More broadly, he said, the W.R.C. helped create a solid market for
wireless broadband technologies and services. "There's much more
certainty today than there was before the conference started," Mr.
Russell said.
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