Congressional Moves Toward Spectrum Policy Reform

Contrary to the speculation that legislators would either not understand the potential contained in 802.11 technology or worse, seek to stifle its innovation for some unknown political objective, some members of Congress want to see Wi-Fi expand beyond wireless hot spots. Senators Barbara Boxer and George Allen announced plans to introduce broadband legislation in the 108th Congress that would require the FCC to make more spectrum available for Wi-Fi. The draft legislation calls for the FCC to allocate not less than 255 MHz of contiguous spectrum below 6 GHz for unlicensed use by wireless broadband devices.

The Boxer-Allen Bill also requires the FCC to develop guidelines for the expanded portion of spectrum allocated for Wi-Fi devices to avoid congestion. The senators said Wi-Fi is limited to a small portion of the spectrum, confining its development.[4]

Much of the current debate in Congress over broadband services has focused on two platforms-cable and DSL-and whether competition versus the deregulation of telecommunications is the best mechanism for encouraging broadband deployment. The bill was not yet completed at the time of this writing; however, a letter signed by Senators Allen and Boxer outlining the bill states, "This debate has reached an unproductive stalemate and fails to consider that other technologies are available that can jump-start consumer-driven investment and demand in broadband services."

The letter also explains the legislation is designed to "foster a third alternative mode of broadband communication, making more unlicensed spectrum available for exciting, new wireless technologies and requiring the FCC to design minimum rules of the road for broadband devices to operate in that spectrum."

Allen and Boxer claim the innovations and advances in the development of unlicensed wireless, radio-based networks (currently known as Wi-Fi) offer an additional means of delivering data at high speed and also enable the creation of new business models for delivering broadband connectivity.[5]

[4]Josh Long, "Senators Boxer and Allen to Introduce Broadband Legislation," www.phoneplusmag.com/hotnews/2bh2214134.html, November 22, 2002.

[5]Roy Mark, "Senators Aim to Wirelessly Jumpstart Broadband," http://siliconvalley.internet.com/news/article.php/154589, November 20, 2002.



Wi-Fi Handbook(c) Building 802.11b Wireless Networks
Wi-Fi Handbook : Building 802.11b Wireless Networks
ISBN: 0071412514
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2003
Pages: 96

flylib.com © 2008-2017.
If you may any questions please contact us: flylib@qtcs.net