It is hot because the payback period for investment is the primary determinant for 700MHz spectrum hotness. The Wireless Telephone and Broadband Carriers find this spectrum attractive since they are able to recover their investment in less than 12 months. This is awesome, just awesome. This is about four (4) quicker than current bandwidth i.e. 1.9 MHz and 2.4 GHz used for cellular and WIFI respectively. Why the payback period is less than the other frequencies is owing to the fact that the 700MHz propagation can go where no other frequency can go (beside TV). In addition, it is well known and accepted that the 700MHz has a presence in remote household (as channels 52-69) for many years, again, owing to its ability penetrating homes far and wide. Wow!, wherever there is a TV one will be able to access broadband Internet and we all know that TV penetration is high, much higher than Internet. This clearly indicate tremendous business opportunity for the players in this spectrum
Beside the technological financial payback (shown above) the FCC as stipulate that devices and applications operating in this spectrum would be ‘open access’ for a specific spectrum block, “Block C” which they dubbed as the public access spectrum. What is “open access”? This ability allows customers to buy devices they wish, load the software they want, and no restriction by vendors. This is huge for small and startup companies; finally, they will get a shot of competing against the stalwarts such as at&t, Verizon. The downside to the “open access” is the FCC caveat for block C. The FCC will re-auction “block C” without “open access” if their target of $4.6Billion is not attained. I hope that Google’s pledge of dropping $4.6 still stand even if the FCC implements not all the criteria they requested.
Well, we have to wait until January 24, 2008 when the FCC will begin the auctioning of the 700 MHz spectrum.
Beside the technological financial payback (shown above) the FCC as stipulate that devices and applications operating in this spectrum would be ‘open access’ for a specific spectrum block, “Block C” which they dubbed as the public access spectrum. What is “open access”? This ability allows customers to buy devices they wish, load the software they want, and no restriction by vendors. This is huge for small and startup companies; finally, they will get a shot of competing against the stalwarts such as at&t, Verizon. The downside to the “open access” is the FCC caveat for block C. The FCC will re-auction “block C” without “open access” if their target of $4.6Billion is not attained. I hope that Google’s pledge of dropping $4.6 still stand even if the FCC implements not all the criteria they requested.
Well, we have to wait until January 24, 2008 when the FCC will begin the auctioning of the 700 MHz spectrum.
FCC documents are at their site below: http://infoserver.fcc.gov/Document_Indexes/Wireless/2007_index_WTB_Public_Notice.html
