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Aug. 30, 2008

Beginning Sep. 2nd, the Federal Communications Commission will conduct interference testing between the AWS (Advanced Wireless Service) spectrum bands 1 and 3.

The project is based on critical comments filed by T-Mobile USA and other wireless carriers in opposition to a government plan for making the spectrum available to new competitors.

T-Mobile’s claim is that the FCC’s proposed use of telecommunications services in the AWS-3 band at 2155-2180 MHz spectrum will interfere with traditional cellular calls in AWS-1.

Startup wireless operator M2Z Networks is the leading candidate to use that spectrum and asserts that T-Mobile is simply being anticompetitive towards the rest of the industy.

FCC chief engineer Julius Knapp and his staff will personally oversee the testing and will require T-Mobile engineers to perform variations and use different interference sources.

Decisions will then be made about whether any interference is negligible or significant, FCC spokesman Robert Kenny explained.

T-Mobile said in a written response to the FCC’s announcement yesterday “we are pleased that the commission has decided to travel to Seattle for interference testing. This is an important development. We are convinced the FCC will learn that its proposed rules are not viable because of the impact on existing wireless providers in the neighboring spectrum bands."

"We hope we can then move forward toward a set of rules that will maximize the use of all affected spectrum bands for broadband and that enables alternative solutions,” added T-Mobile.

AWS testing is open to the public by registration and will be conducted at Boeing Technology Services’ metrology lab near Seattle.

The FCC said all the testing will be paid for by T-Mobile USA, and not American taxpayers.

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    This article was featured on Business 5.0.

Source: T-Mobile USA.