The Federal Communications Commission adopted new rules that will free up 25 megahertz of spectrum in the 2.3 GHz band for mobile broadband services as part of the commission's goal to make 500 megahertz of spectrum available over the next decade.
The FCC agreed to change the usage rules governing the Wireless Communications Services (WCS) spectrum and institute rules to avoid interference problems. Interference issues have long been a problem due to interference from DARS terrestrial repeaters and a strict out-of-band emissions limit.
FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski called the order a "strong down payment on a vital national need." The FCC's national broadband plan calls for freeing up 300 MHz of spectrum for wireless broadband in the next five years.
Interestingly, NextWave, which sold off a slew of businesses in 2008 to stay afloat, owns a significant amount of 2.3 GHz spectrum. It holds 2.8 billion MHZ-pops of 2.3 GHz WCS spectrum in the U.S.
"The company has substantial debt maturities in 2011 and must successfully monetize a substantial portion of its wireless spectrum assets in order to retire its debt," Nextwave recently said in its fiscal first quarter press release.
For more:
- see this IDG News Service article
- read this RCR News article
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