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[Music]
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so on 23rd of September the Federal
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Communications Commission approved new
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rules uh allowing whitespace Spectrum to
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be used for what is being called Wi-Fi
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on steroids uh could you please explain
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what exactly this white space is and
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what will the new rules mean for
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wireless users this is an incredibly
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important decision because it's the
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first time that the FCC has allowed a
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new kind of spectrum use uh
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traditionally in Wireless Communications
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the FCC exclusively licensed Spectrum so
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it said for example a television station
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has the right to transmit on a certain
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Channel and no one else can transmit
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there and about 20 years ago the FCC
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allowed for a different kind of spectrum
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use which is called unlicensed which is
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they took some bands that were that were
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very congested and and seemed to be
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fairly useless and just open them up
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they said anyone who wants to transmit
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can transmit here as long as you follow
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certain technical mechanisms to allow
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the Spectrum to be shared and that
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latter category is what allowed for
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Wi-Fi to exist um and even though this
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was considered junk Spectrum a
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tremendous Market grew up around Wi-Fi
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because it was open to Innovation
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because devices could be made and Shar
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share the Spectrum as opposed to one l e
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having total control and and dominance
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over how that Spectrum got used so Whit
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space is in a way is a hybrid of the two
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the FCC has allocated Spectrum for
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television broadcasting but you have to
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remember that that Spectrum was was
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first allocated back in the 1950s and
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1960s when technology was much less
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sophisticated than today so what the FCC
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did was they set up uh large sectum
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sectors of the spectrum that was
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actually dark uh that could not be used
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for transmission in order to protect
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different broadcasters so you think
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about it the way a TV station works it
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it broadcast out from one location so if
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I have a television station broadcasting
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in Philadelphia and another station is
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broadcasting on the same frequency in
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New York those signals would would be
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seen to interfere because the
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televisions were were not sophisticated
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enough to tell them apart so what the
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FCC basically did uh was for example say
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in Philadelphia you can transmit on
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Channel 3 and in New York you can
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transmit on Channel 4 but the the
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reverse pairs Channel 4 in Philadelphia
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is dark and channel 3 in New York is
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dark that's an extraordinary waste of
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spectrum uh spectrum is is is so
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terribly important to so many services
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and so much Economic Development today
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and the FCC had to make it completely
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unused Technologies come a long way
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since then and so white spaces is about
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unlocking the potential of those unused
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corners of the broadcast spectrum and so
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what the FCC did uh for the first time
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in this decision is said we're not going
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to get rid of the exclusively licensed
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Spectrum all the broadcasters are still
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licensed where they are uh but we can
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allow unlicensed devices to operate
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around those license frequencies and
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that's potentially revolutionary well
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the broadcasters had opposed the earlier
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uh uh fcc's approach uh are they
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satisfied now with the new rules or are
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there still concerns broadcasters have
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have expressed very strong concerns all
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along about the wh spaces proposal but
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the FCC has been working at this uh
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since 2002 so it spent eight years and
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the FCC has some very excellent
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technical expertise uh and it has open
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proceedings so they they've had the
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technical experts on all sides submit
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prototype devices test them do the
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technical analysis and what they found
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is that the interference concerns that
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the broadcasters rais are just wildly
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overblown so the FCC in this proceeding
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put into place various mechanisms to
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protect uh both incumbent broadcasters
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as well as there's some other users for
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example wireless microphones at sporting
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events and and Theater and so forth um
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the FCC put a number of restrictions in
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place to protect them so I I I would not
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expect that the broadcast industry would
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say they're happy with this uh but I
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think the FCC has been very cognizant of
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their concerns because they they
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certainly don't want to have a situation
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where where people's televisions get
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interrupted because of these other
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services uh what are likely to be some
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of the first deployments of of of the of
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the new Spectrum do you see implications
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in the are areas of say Healthcare
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education there have actually already
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been experimental deployments so for
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example Microsoft uh has developed a
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research technology called whitei which
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is which is a set of protocols to build
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Wi-Fi like systems on Whit spaces which
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they got an experimental license and
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they've actually deployed on the
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Microsoft campus uh in in Washington uh
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and then there's some other companies
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that have deployed whites spaces systems
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in in rural areas uh where it's hard to
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reach them with traditional Broadband uh
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mechanisms one of the great advantages
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of of wi of Whit spaces is that it uses
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low frequency spectrum so the television
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broadcast brands are very good in terms
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of propagation they signal can reach uh
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through uh trees and through buildings
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in a way that higher frequency cellular
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frequencies and Wi-Fi frequencies can't
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so some rural areas are looking at for
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that use there's also been great
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interest in using it for smart grid
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energy deployments uh in terms of
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monitoring uh distributed uh power
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networks uh the potential is really
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quite broad again because it's an
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unlicensed technology uh any company can
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make devices uh that that uh can share
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this spectrum and then anyone can take
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those devices and use them for different
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kinds of
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applications FC uh chairman Julius
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janakowski uh recently said that the
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opening up of the spectrum would provide
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a what he called a platform for
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innovators and entrepreneurs uh what
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kind of um uh Innovation opportunities
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do you foresee coming out of this well
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look look at what's already happened
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with Wi-Fi uh it started off as a a a
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protocol for Enterprise networking and
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now it's in every device you can think
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of it's in it's in your iPhone it's in
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laptops it's in uh entertainment devices
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and being used for for all sorts of
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applications again because it's it's
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distributed be because uh The Innovation
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and the use case is not dependent on one
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service provider saying this is Spectrum
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for the following use um so I think
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we'll see the same thing with uh White
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spaces uh and in particular I think
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we'll see great innovation in areas
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where the existing Wireless Technologies
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don't go so there are lots of rural
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areas in the United States and worldwide
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uh that don't have affordable Solutions
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and again part of the advantage of this
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unlicensed approach uh is that companies
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can make large volumes of devices which
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pushes the unit cost down and that
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allows for situations where maybe
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there's another technology that that
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theoretically could serve that use uh
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but the costs are so low because the
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devices are cheap and someone doesn't
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need to acquire a license to the
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Spectrum uh that people will pick them
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up and use them for interesting things
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so I I think you know we'll start to see
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them in these edge cases and and then uh
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we'll see just as we saw with Wi-Fi
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where large companies like Cisco and
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Intel got on the bandwagon and ramped
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them up for for more uh traditional
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mainstream uses I think we'll see the
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same thing you you referred to uh
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Microsoft's use already and Microsoft of
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course was a big champion of the new
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rules also companies like Google and
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Dell have been pushing the FCC uh to
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pass these rules uh what do you see as
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some of the uses that companies like uh
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Google and Dell could put these uh neur
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rals too I've said in the past that that
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Wireless Communications capacity is the
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oil of the 21st century it's it's the
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fundamental input that the information
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and network economy runs on um and
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increasingly we're we're seeing
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explosive demand in use for for Wireless
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in all sorts of areas as I've said both
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uh traditional kinds of uses like
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communication Wireless Broadband uh
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entertainment applications both in the
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home and and outside the home as well as
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things like smart grid remote Health
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Care um and all sorts of sensor
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applications all of those need Wireless
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capacity and so all of the major
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companies that are in the uh technology
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realm recognize that everything's going
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to be Wireless enabled and it's going to
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be Wireless enabled in multiple ways so
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if you're a company like Dell that's
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building devices you're selling millions
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and millions of laptops tops and other
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kinds of mobile devices you want to
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wireless enable those and you want to
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wireless enable those in the most
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flexible possible way uh which means you
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don't want to have a situation where
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you're beholden to a wireless carrier um
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that's going to control how that's going
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to be used you want to put a cheap chip
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into your laptop and then build software
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around it and and build a platform
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around it um and the same thing with
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Microsoft they're they're looking at at
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various different applications and
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opportunities in different markets
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Google all those companies Phillips has
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also been involved uh using it for for
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high-speed media uh shifting around the
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home so again the possibilities are
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really endless do you see any downside
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around the new rules I for example uh
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are there any Securities is security
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issues that we should be concerned about
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there are always security issues and uh
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they're not inherent in the uh FCC uh
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mandates but uh systems that are built
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on this technology especially if they're
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in Mission critical areas like for
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example smart grid monitoring are going
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to need good security but there's
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there's nothing fundamentally insecure
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about unlicensed Wireless uh sort of
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like saying there's nothing
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fundamentally insecure about open source
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software which for a long time people
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would also say but you look at it's
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being used by Banks and governments and
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so forth um so so security is is is
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important but not a fundamental problem
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uh there are real issues um there are
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legitimate worries about interference
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and and systems need to be built to
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ensure that they don't do that uh and
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there also are legitimate worries that
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the FCC was too restrictive that the the
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power limits and other kinds of
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restrictions that had put into place uh
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to prevent interference with the
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incumbent systems might might overly
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limit where this could be used um I I
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get I get concerned when people talk
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about this as Wi-Fi on steroids or super
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Wi-Fi because it is different Wi-Fi
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doesn't have those limitations so for
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example you're not going to be able to
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use a whit space system uh around uh the
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Broadway region of New York City because
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there's so many wireless microphones
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there for the the theater production and
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there's nothing like that in in Wi-Fi
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maybe there there are various ways
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around it but the point is the
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expectations may be a little ahead of
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the reality we've got to realize there
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are those limits and get devices into
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the field and see how realistic the
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concerns are and I'm hopeful that the
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FCC will look at the data uh and
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potentially if it sees that some of the
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interference concerns haven't happened
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uh then it could go back and loosen the
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rules uh could you uh just to wind up uh
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outline what you see as some of the
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immediate effects of the new rules and
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what could be sort of the longer term
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impact that'll roll out more gradually
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MH well the immediate effect is that all
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these companies that have been involved
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in this proceeding for up to 8 years are
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going to start building devices uh so so
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companies like Cisco and companies like
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Intel and Phillips and Dell and so forth
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are going to start uh developing uh
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chips and hardware and the uh Technical
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Community uh the networking Community
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which has already been involved
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developing technical standards and
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protocols is going to kick that into
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overdrive um and companies like Google
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and Microsoft are going to start uh
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doing interesting deployments and we'll
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see this start to roll out it it's not
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it's not going to happen overnight uh
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just as Wi-Fi uh was authorized by the
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FCC in the in the mid 1980s but really
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took until the mid 90s uh until the the
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the protocols and the and the devices
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were there at Mass Market volumes but I
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think we're going to see this this flow
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through and this and this kind of wave
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that's going to build and build uh in
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this area the longer term uh question is
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is still open I I think that if we look
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at whites spaces not just as one
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particular authorization of a particular
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technology but a new model for How We Do
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spectrum allocation there's even greater
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opportunities in particular one rule
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that the FCC put into place to protect
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against interference is what's called a
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geolocation database so they said each
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uh whitespace device either itself or
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needs to be connected to a device that
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does this has to have a database that
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can uh have a a map of the spectral
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environment uh here's a television
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station that's licensed in this area
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here's a wireless microphone and and
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wireless microphone companies could
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actually add to the database and it
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needs to check that database and use
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that to say okay in this particular area
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at this particular time I can transmit
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on this frequency or not um and that
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that's something that that helps prevent
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interference because it's such a complex
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Dynamic environment I think it actually
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has great potential to be used much more
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broadly because when you think about it
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again go back to what I said at the
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beginning the problem is we have this
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traditional fixed spectrum allocation
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system uh where lots and lots of
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providers in all different areas have
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gotten allocations based on historical
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Technologies and we actually look at
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transmission if you actually put up a an
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antenna and a spectrum analyzer you find
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that most of the spectrum is empty most
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of the time in most of the United States
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and the rest of the world um so how do
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we unlock that and and we have to unlock
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that I mean there's such extraordinary
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uh economic investment going behind all
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these applications both consumer and
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business uh I think one way that we do
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that is to develop mechanisms sort of
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the way the domain name system works for
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the internet um that that are an
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intermediation point that help identify
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what's available and match up demand and
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capacity on a real-time basis we don't
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need to do that through a necessarily a
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market although some of those mechanisms
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might be economic mechanisms uh but we
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need infrastructure uh to fulfill that
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Demand on a real-time basis I think the
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whites space's database could become
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that that's not what the FCC proposed or
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mandated uh in fact they did it for very
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different reasons uh but I think this
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might be when we look back 20 or 30
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years from now this might be the
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foundation of of an entirely different
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uh regime for wireless
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communication Kevin thanks so much for
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joining us today thank you
