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April 25, 2011

We are told that the FCC is looking at several potential ways to free up more spectrum for the wireless industry, but at the same time, we all know that this won't happen overnight.

In the meantime, wireless carriers facing soaring data traffic consumption rates are going to have to invent new and creative ways to work with the limited spectrum that they have for now. It's basically out of their hands, really.

So far, a few 'clever' solutions have already been proposed, including Wi-Fi offload which consists of the deployment of dense and smaller cell phone networks. Others are proposing increasing backhaul and optimizing network traffic, particularly mobile video.

And then comes ISCO International with its own solution to the capacity crunch in the wireless industry-- mobile spectrum conditioning. ISCO's signal processing technology mitigates co-channel interference so that wireless carrier's spectrum can be used as efficiently as possible with today's existing technology.

Gordon Reichard, CEO of ISCO, explains that there are sometimes unexpected sources of interference in the mobile segment, from a loose connector in a cable TV amplifier to poorly calibrated and positioned Wi-Fi hotspots.

ISCO's signal processing technology identifies and corrects that kind of interference, allowing wireless carriers to transmit a clear RF (radio frequency) signal.

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"As wireless traffic continues to grow dramatically on our customers' networks, the need for the greatest spectrum utilization possible is absolutely critical," Reichard says. "Spectrum conditioning allows our customers to achieve the highest spectrum utilization that is possible today, and with the kind of technology that currently exists."

The company's newest customer, Shenandoah Telecommunications Inc reports that base stations outfitted with ISCO's signal processing equipment were able to cut dropped call rates by 46 percent, improve receive signal strength indicator (RSSI) levels by up to 20 percent and further reduce the rate of blocked calls by 13 percent.

Shenandoah Telecommunications provides network coverage along the highway I-81 corridor from Harrisonburg, Va. to Altoona, Penn. Reichard says ISCO is still working to convince the wireless industry that spectrum conditioning does work and that the company's technology is cost effective. "Over the last couple of years, we've had to prove that you really can mitigate co-channel interference, and we've done just that" he says.

ISCO is currently entering into multiple cluster trials demonstrating the efficiency of its signal processing technology. Reichard hopes the company will land more wireless carrier customers once they see capacity improvements delivered by ISCO's signal processors.

In January of last year, it was largely predicted by some experts that mobile services would continue to grow at anywhere from 15 to 20 percent per year for the next 5 years. That is simply a lot of growth and to some, maybe these people have good reasons to be concerned.

Mobile communications, including 3G and now 4G information services, have seen remarkable expansion since 2004, as millions of users buy smartphones and use them not only to replace traditional landline service but as a principal device for Internet access. And this is happening a lot faster than what most people think.

The issue is that wireless spectrum is in fact very limited. We can always lay more fiber-optic cable and, in the future, whatever technology exceeds the capacity of fiber to carry bits, but there is only so much usable radio spectrum over which those same bits can be communicated wirelessly.

And that is exactly where the whole problem lies.

Several proposals to address this problem were discussed a few weeks ago at the annual CES Show. These include reclaiming underutilized or unused spectrum as, for example, the FCC has done in the transition to digital television.

But some of the spectrum broadcasters were using for analog signals has already been auctioned off for new wireless services, so there's really not that much left.

The White House and the FCC both believe that over the next five years, unless solutions are found, the demand for wireless services will largely outstrip the very limited supply of wireless spectrum.

From the standpoint of the National Broadband Plan and the hopes for an information-based economic recovery, running out of spectrum could prove catastrophic.

Wireless broadband is expected to play a major role in the push for universal access to broadband Internet services, and this, as you may very well expect, will further compound the problem even more.

Today however, there is some talk of taking back more of the broadcasters' remaining allocation of spectrum, and of reallocating spectrum currently held by the federal government and, in particular, the U.S. military.

In certain cases, spectrum trades among those who currently control them may lead to more efficient uses of the most valuable frequencies.

Other solutions are of a more technical nature, including software and hardware that make it possible to share wireless frequencies or dynamically reroute signals along unused frequencies. New technologies may also make it possible to effectively use frequencies that today are not suitable for carrying radio signals.

Michael Calabrese, v.p. and director of the New America Foundation's Wireless Future Program, believes that there is a great deal of unused and underutilized wireless spectrum that can be tapped in the future.

He pointed out that even in cities such as New York and Washington, D.C., less than twenty percent of the available spectrum is actually being utilized most of the time. That's a big waste of spectrum right off the bat.

The FCC is now calling for the development of a comprehensive spectrum map to identify the best opportunities to free up underutilized or misallocated spectrum. The creation of an updated map is likely to be a major recommendation of the National Broadband Plan.

Whatever is done, the time to act is now. The FCC understands that as much as the largest wireless carriers.

Technology companies such as Intel, Google, Microsoft, HP, IBM and Motorola all plan to put unused wireless spectrum that sits between television channels in the UHF band (ultra high frequency) to use when the Federal Communications Commission finalizes rules for the new spectrum sometime next week.

As things stand today, that frequency band isn't currently used anymore by most TV stations, and represents a big waste of spectrum. Now the FCC wants to change all that.

Those companies are already testing products that would use unlicensed wireless spectrum called "white space," which sit between broadcast TV channels in the old UHF band.

To be sure, the 300 MHz to 400 MHz of unused white space spectrum is considered prime spectrum for offering wireless broadband services.

And that's because it can travel very long distances and penetrate through thick walls, a great improvement to traditional wireless technology used today, considering all its limitations when it comes to distances travelled, especially when it has to penetrate concrete walls that are reinforced with steel.

In November 2008, the FCC unanimously agreed to open up that 'white space' spectrum for unlicensed use. But several technical issues to allow device makers and service providers to use the spectrum still need to be researched carefully and they need to be addressed with clear solutions that will work.

And of course, there's always cost considerations as in any other projects.

Sometime next week, the FCC is expected to vote on new rules that will open the door for companies to begin initial R&D of new products that will be able to use all this unlicensed spectrum.

In addition to spurring a new market for entrepreneurs, the FCC also sees white space technology as a way to achieve some of the goals laid out as part of the National Broadband Plan.

In that plan, the FCC said it would free up 500 MHz of new wireless spectrum within ten years for licensed and unlicensed use.

The plan recommends that 300 MHz of that spectrum should become available before the end of 2015. White space spectrum is part of this plan.

But the spectrum could be used by new wireless service providers to create new regional services. Or it could be used by incumbent wireless operators to increase existing wireless networks if they wish to do so.

There are still many details that are up in the air and that need to be addressed by the FCC and all the players involved, and next week's FCC meeting will be a critical one on many levels.

And because the white space spectrum will be unlicensed, it will be much less expensive for companies to develop business models to build and manage new networks. But even though the spectrum is unlicensed, it doesn't mean that services will be free either.

On average, network operators building new networks using whatever spectrum -- white space or otherwise -- will still need lots of cash to build the networks in the first place. And it can be a lot more complex too, since the technology is still fairly new and there could be some nasty surprises on the horizon for the developers. The kind of surprises that nobody expected to see, which have a tendency of quikly escalating the costs of any new project.

Still, because the capital expenditures of building white space networks should be less than the cost of acquiring traditional wireless spectrum and then building a network, the goal is that service providers could offer services at lower costs or even free if they're supported by advertising or some other business model. And that's when Google would come in with its own ideas on making the technology available for free, if it can be supported by click advertising.

"As long as there's free and open access to the Internet, I don't think there are any concerns," Microsoft's Reed was quoted as saying. Reed also added that he expects multiple companies to maintain databases for white spaces networks, including Google, which said in January that it would build and operate a white-spaces database.

Even though Google has volunteered to build a database, the company told Bloomberg it's happy to allow others to build one as well if the FCC chooses another provider or group of providers.

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Source: ISCO International Ltd.

    This article was featured on Business 5.0 and on Tech Blog.