Hasta La Gadget!

Ever suffer through the painfully slow bottleneck of public WiFi? Sure you have — Airports, coffee shops, even your neighbor’s unprotected home network are limited by the current WiFi spectrum. FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski says it’s a problem, and wants to clean up the mess. Speaking with Gary Shaprio at CES, Genachowski revealed that he’s been working with the DoD and other Government agencies open up more bandwidth for WiFi. Areas like New York City have an abundance of spectrum set aside for TV licenses, he says, airwaves that could serve the public better for WiFi or cellular networks.

“The rest of the world is watching us,” he told Shapiro. “We have to get it right… …we need to have a nationwide, unlicensed, continuous, same-frequency platform for innovation.” To do that, the FCC will need to wrench spectrum from the hands of broadcasters, and redistribute it. “We can reorganize it and ensure everybody gets a good share.” It’s an uphill battle, but one the chairman recognizes as important. “We predict a WiFi traffic jam, and we need to fix it… …WiFi is such an integral part of our broadband ecosystem, and we need to make sure that we pay it sufficient attention.” Check out the rest of Shaprio and Genachowski’s dialog in our ongoing liveblog.

Filed under: Wireless, Internet

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The dust has settled after Ireland’s recent spectrum auction, and wouldn’t you know it, Vodafone, O2, Meteor and Three have picked up a combined 140MHz of paired spectrum across the 800, 900 and 1800MHz bands. According to the country’s regulator, ComReg, the auction will effectively double the spectrum available in these bands and will allow for LTE deployment across Éire. For its part, O2 has committed to begin its 4G rollout in the first half of 2013. To ensure quick deployment, all license holders are required to make their new spectrum available to 70 percent of Ireland’s population within three years. In all, the companies will pay €855 million ($1.09 billion) for spectrum rights until 2030, of which, €482 million is payable up front. Curiously enough, the country’s 800MHz spectrum was freed up just last month after its analog shutoff. To find a complete breakdown of the situation, feel free to hit up the announcement from ComReg at the source link below.

[Thanks, Neil]

[Photo credit: Seattleye / Flickr]

Filed under: Wireless, Mobile

Ireland completes spectrum auction after analog shutoff, LTE rollout pegged for mid-2013 originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 15 Nov 2012 22:04:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Verizon used the prospect of selling lower-block 700MHz spectrum as a carrot to lure in the US government: it would share the wireless wealth only if it was cleared to buy cable company spectrum in the AWS bands. Now that the DOJ and FCC have greenlit the cable purchase, the carrier is living up to its end of the bargain. Verizon has just signed a related deal that sells B-block 700MHz access to Nortex Communications, a rural phone company operating northwest of Dallas. While it’s not Verizon first pact for the lower 700MHz space, it’s the first directly resulting from the carrier’s promises during the AWS frequency grab and shows the company being true to its word. We’re not expecting the Texas agreement to suddenly level the balance of power when Verizon wasn’t even using those airwaves for LTE; still, it’s good to know that the provider isn’t waiting around to give smaller competitors a break.

Continue reading Verizon signs first deal to sell lower 700MHz spectrum following the AWS handover, acts on its promise

Filed under: Cellphones, Wireless, Verizon

Verizon signs first deal to sell lower 700MHz spectrum following the AWS handover, acts on its promise originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 14 Nov 2012 16:19:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Sprint has cemented a deal with US Cellular to pick up its PCS spectrum and around 585,000 customers across the Midwest. The deal will land the newly-owned company 30MHz within the 1900 MHz band across Illinois, Indian, Michigan, Missouri and Ohio, with the carrier stating that it’ll be putting the extra spectrum to use augmenting its coverage while it continues to roll out 4G.

US Cellular will apparently continue business elsewhere, once the deal passes regulatory approval some time year, stating that it aims to “increase focus on markets where it has strong positions” and “streamline operations” — probably involving its own 4G expansion plans.

Update: There’s a gray cloud to the silver lining. US Cellular warns that over 1,000 jobs will be cut as part of the network handover, most of them a mix of corporate and retail staff based in Chicago. It also says that the network offload reflects the challenges it has getting customers in larger cities: they’re both more expensive up-front and generate twice as much subscriber turnover as in less densely-packed areas. The Sprint deal should wrap up by mid-2013 if all goes according to plan.

Update 2: US Cellular has revised its own job figures and now says the exact tally is 980. While it’s only so much comfort to those affected, the exact amount is slightly more reassuring.

Filed under: Mobile, Sprint

Sprint pays US Cellular $480 million for Midwest spectrum and customers (update 2: 980 jobs lost) originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 07 Nov 2012 07:46:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Dodging the issues of spectrum auctions and more cell towers, researchers at MIT have discovered that they can use an algebraic equation to improve data speeds by reducing dropped packets. It’s these dropped packets that can build up congestion across a wireless network, as devices attempt to recoup these missing data nuggets. But instead of sending typical packets, MIT’s Research Laboratory of Electronics created an equation that describes a series of packets. If a packet fails to deliver, then the receiving device is apparently able to “solve” the missing chunk, with the processing load on phones, routers and base stations apparently negligible.

The tech, which can also seamlessly transition a data stream between wireless internet and LTE, has already been tested on WiFi networks over at MIT; when two percent of data packets were dropped, speeds were boosted from 1Mbps to 16Mbps. If five percent of packets were being lost, the researchers then saw bandwidth increase from 0.5Mbps to 13.5Mbps. Companies are apparently already licensing the tech, although MIT isn’t revealing more on this just yet. Muriel Medard, project lead, said that there were currently “very severe inefficiencies that should be remedied before you consider acquiring more resources” — namely more spectrum and hardware, although the gains seen in these early tests are yet to be replicated in real life. There’s more on the science and development at the source link below.

Filed under: Cellphones, Wireless, Science, Mobile, Alt

MIT researchers use algebraic equation that improves WiFi and LTE data streams: boosts speed, reduces network congestion originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 24 Oct 2012 07:15:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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