The Future of Wireless: Broadband Networking on Unlicensed Spectrum
Event
The traditional approach to bridging the broadband "last mile" requires huge investments by incumbent carriers. Laying fiber lines to millions of homes - and upgrading proprietary cellular networks to provide wireless Internet access, so-called 3G - are enormously capital intensive and time consuming at a time when the telecom industry is flat on its back. A viable alternative is WiFi, a wireless LAN technology that shares broadband Internet access among devices using unlicensed spectrum. The market for WiFi and Bluetooth is growing rapidly - a projected $5 billion by 2006 - as millions of Americans cut the cord. Is wireless networking on unlicensed frequencies a feasible solution to the "last mile" dilemma? Will it undermine, or supplement, proprietary 3G cellular networks? How will the FCC find more unlicensed "parks" and facilitate "underlay" access to underutilized licensed frequencies to meet burgeoning consumer demand?
Yet WiFi is only a preview of emerging technologies based on "smart" radios that dynamically share spectrum far more efficiently than today's systems. Kevin Werbach will present his new Working Paper explaining the concept of Open Spectrum -- a "commons" approach with the potential to virtually eliminate spectrum scarcity, while keeping consumer costs low and ensuring open Internet access and unmediated peer-to-peer communication, much like the dial-up Internet. For 75 years spectrum has been treated as a scarce resource that the government must parcel out through exclusive licenses. Yet the assumptions underlying this dominant paradigm are rapidly eroding. Today's digital technologies are smart enough to distinguish between signals, allowing networks of consumer devices to share the airwaves without exclusive licensing. The panel will discuss and debate this potential and what policy changes can facilitate a new era of ubiquitous wireless broadband networking.
Attachments
Location
Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Choate Room
1779 Massachusetts Ave, NW
Washington, DCSee map: Google Maps
Participants
- Pierre DeVries
Program Manager for Future Home Technology
Microsoft, Inc. - Carl Stevenson
Senior Manager fro Standards & Regulatory Affairs
Agere Systems - David Reed
Communications Systems Designer
Reed.com - Kevin Werbach
Founder, Supernova Group - Michael Calabrese
Vice President and Co-Director, Retirement Security Program, New America Foundation - Karen Kornbluh
Director, Work and Family Program, New America Foundation