Signal Strength

The Federal Communications Commission plans to look more closely at the wireless industry as it scrutinizes everything from the industry's billing practices to the state of innovation and competition in the market.

The commission, headed up by newly appointed chairman Julius Genachowski, on August 27 will open up two "notice of inquiries" to look at some of these issues. The agency announced its plans Thursday when it published the agenda for its August open meeting.

Specifically, the first inquiry will look at the state of competition and innovation in the wireless market. And another inquiry will examine … Read more

The debate over Net neutrality has reignited as broadband service providers hit the first deadline for applying for funds as part of President Obama's economic stimulus plan.

Thursday marked the first deadline for broadband service providers looking to get a piece of the $4.7 billion that will be doled out in the plan's initial phase. In total, Congress has authorized $7.2 billion as part of the Recovery Act to be used to bring high-speed broadband Internet access to consumers and business in areas of the country where service is not yet available or is too expensive. … Read more

Nokia, the world's largest maker of cell phones, could be preparing to enter the crowded Netbook market.

According to the Economic Times, Nokia CEO Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo told reporters at a press event Wednesday in India, that "the PC and the mobile will continue to come closer and merge." He said Nokia sees a lot of opportunity in this convergence and he added that the company is "looking at the Netbook market to see what kind of opportunity is there."

It shouldn't come as a big surprise that Nokia might push further into the computing … Read more

Microsoft researchers may have taken a step closer to finally turning unused analog TV spectrum, known as "white spaces," into unlicensed spectrum that can be used to deliver new wireless broadband services.

Researchers from the software giant, along with academics from Harvard University, have developed a protocol that the company claims could be the foundation for products that meet Federal Communications Commission requirements for avoiding interference when using unlicensed "white space" spectrum. The researchers presented their ideas this week at the ACM SIGCOMM 2009, a communications conference held in Barcelona, Spain, according to an article published on MIT's Technology Review Web site.

"White space" spectrum is unused wireless spectrum that sits between analog TV channels. Because much of this spectrum operates at lower frequencies, it can travel longer distances, much longer distances than the unlicensed frequencies used for Wi-Fi devices. Most Wi-Fi devices operate at 2.4 GHz, whereas, white space spectrum between analog TV channels 21 and 51 operate in the 512 megahertz and 698 megahertz range. (Signals transmitted over lower frequencies tend to travel longer distances at slower speeds, while signals transmitted at higher frequencies tend to be faster over shorter distances.)

Technology companies, such as Google, Motorola, Microsoft, and Dell, have been lobbying the FCC for years to open this spectrum for unlicensed use. The hope is that the spectrum could be used to augment existing wireless services or eventually be used to create new wireless broadband services.

But TV broadcasters and wireless microphone companies have long opposed the use of this spectrum, saying it will interfere with their services.

After a series of prototype tests, the FCC in November finally agreed to open up unused broadcast TV spectrum for unlicensed use. But the commission put together a set of strict guidelines designed to ensure that devices using the unlicensed spectrum would not interfere with existing TV broadcasters or other devices using the same unlicensed spectrum, such as wireless microphones.… Read more