Wireless

On Tuesday, the FCC voted 5-0 to approve unlicensed white space usage.  FCC Chairman Kevin Martin has voiced his support throughout the process, along side major companies like Google, Microsoft, and Intel and their campaign toFree The Airwaves.  The National Association of Broadcasters weren't too happy though, as they fear it could interfere with wireless audio equipment.  No word yet on when the world will support our efforts to Free The Future.

Baltimore became the first city to receive Sprint's XOHM WiMAX service after the carrier officially turned on the signals in the downtown area on Monday.  Networks in Chicago, Boston, Dallas, Philadelphia, Washington D.C. or Northern Virginia are still being tested.  Download speeds should come in around 3-4mbps and prices are reported to be around $35/month with no contract necessary.

While mobile storage options like TivoToGo and PocketDish have received alot of hype, MythTV is not to be outdone as it has some neat little mobile apps as well. myth2ipod is a Perl script created by Chris aka Wififun currently in 1.0b2 release and compatible with MythTV .19. It allows you to create video podcasts of TV programs you record, subscribe to your entire MythTV iPod library, or subscribe to single shows with only that shows episodes in the podcast. If you'd rather watch TV over WiFi, MythStreamTV is a MythTV plugin that allows live transcoding and streaming of MPEG 1/2 (PVR-x50/M-179/DVB/ATSC/HD) to Windows Media Player/Mplayer and allows control via MythWeb.  If geek factor, non-proprietary hardware, and total control over your content don't wet your whistle... remember what Grandma said, "Sometimes in life you should just taste the homebrew - it can often be much sweeter."

If you're looking for a great hands on demo of the HTC TyTN (formerly HTC Hermes), check out Mobility Today's video podcast of this highly anticipated device.  HTC's latest wide-side QWERTY keyboard PPC is starting to become available in Europe.  It comes with jazz like HSDPA, a 416MHz processor, a QVGA, 320 x 240 pixel LCD touch screen, 802.11b/g WiFi, a 2.1 megapixel digital camera, and a second camera for video calls.  US customers can expect to see the device from Cingular this fall.

America Online announced a deal to partner with Clearwire to resell their WiMax service, newly branded "AOL High Speed - powered by Clearwire." Clearwire was launched in 2004 by famed cellular network pioneer Craig McCaw, who sold what was considered the first national cellular network to AT&T in 1994 for 11.5 billion. McCaw made much of his fortune in the 1990's buying, hoarding, and selling spectrum licenses and this time around, you guessed it, he's sticking to his roots. McCaw's Clearwire has eagerly been buying MMDS spectrum in the 2.5-2.7GHz band and currently has a WiMax buildout in nearly 200 some cities. Though Clearwire holds at least 132 MMDS licenses, Sprint Nextel currently owns 93% of the spectrum Clearwire needs. McCaw was a sitting member on Nextel's board of directors until 2003 when he resigned to pursue "new opportunities." Clearwire has actively been buying out other wireless carriers like that of Winbeam, a WISP serving locations in Altoona, Greensburg, and Erie, PA and announced last month the launch of their own VOIP service much to the chagrin of Vonage-blocked customers. McCaw also owns Inukshuk, a Canadian MMDS provider that has similiarly partnered with AOL Canada and NextNet, which makes COFDM systems for his various WiMax companies. While it is unclear how aggressive AOL will be in funding a larger buildout, at least they're moving away from BYOB (broadband not beer).

The upcoming spectrum auction, opening June 29, 2006, for AWS (Advanced Wireless Services) will no doubt be a major story this summer, but the usual suspects might not be the ones collecting the purse. The FCC auction involves paired spectrum in the 1710-1755 MHz/2110-2155 MHz bands, previously owned by the Department of Defense, which has been long envisioned for 3G services. However, recent Network Neutrality debates have caused several Internet giants to consider taking delivery service into their own hands. Wireless carriers may not be all that interested anyway, as they wait for the FCC to open bidding on the 700 MHz spectrum expected to come in 2008. The 700-MHz spectrum draws more interest because of its propagation characteristics, as it can reach farther and penetrate walls better than can higher frequencies such as AWS. The frequencies were formerly used for UHF TV stations but there has been much debate about the difficulty of clearing out current users. The FCC opening of the AWS spectrum also creates incompatibility with the 2100 MHz spectrum the rest of the world uses for 3G, similar to U.S. allocating PCS on the 1900 MHz spectrum rather than 1800 MHz. Want some telling sound (er... txt) bytes from each of the wireless carriers? VZW: "Ideally, we would participate in the 700-MHz auction," said President and CEO Denny Strigl. Verizon plans to be active in both auctions but believes it has adequate spectrum for its plans for the rest of this decade, he said. Sprint: Sprint has an even less urgent need for additional spectrum than other mobile operators because it has licenses in the 2.5-GHz band that cover much of the country, said Stephen Falk, vice president of global standards at Sprint Nextel. Cingular: Cingular Wireless is comfortable with the amount of spectrum it has today but is evaluating the upcoming auctions, CTO Kris Rinne said. The interesting one of the bunch however is T-Mobile... as they may be the most active AWS bidder. They want the spectrum for UMTS services, says Tole Hart, research director at Gartner Group. "The adjustments needed by European UMTS equipment suppliers to make their wares available quickly in the United States wouldn't be very great." The first FCC spectrum auction, held in June of 1994, netted $617 million in sales for a total of 10 licenses. This time the FCC will put up 1122 AWS licenses in 90 total MHz of spectrum space. A study by the Yankee Group estimates sales for this summer's auction will be between $8 and $13 billion. Aggressive bidding in past PCS auctions netted in upwards of $56 billion. Which leaves us wondering where Sotheby's plays into all of this.

Confused by the lack of an industry standard in 802.11 equiptment? Catch up on the state of the Wi-Fi industry and find out what WECA plans to certify.