Congressional Moves Toward Spectrum Policy Reform

Congressional Moves Toward Spectrum Policy Reform
Contrary to the speculation that legislators would either not understand the potential contained in 802.11
technology or worse, seek to stifle its innovation for some unknown political objective, some members of
Congress want to see Wi-Fi expand beyond wireless hot spots. Senators Barbara Boxer and George
Allen announced plans to introduce broadband legislation in the 108th Congress that would require the
FCC to make more spectrum available for Wi-Fi. The draft legislation calls for the FCC to allocate not
less than 255 MHz of contiguous spectrum below 6 GHz for unlicensed use by wireless broadband
devices.
The Boxer-Allen Bill also requires the FCC to develop guidelines for the expanded portion of spectrum
allocated for Wi-Fi devices to avoid congestion. The senators said Wi-Fi is limited to a small portion of the
spectrum, confining its development.[4]
Much of the current debate in Congress over broadband services has focused on two platforms-cable
and DSL-and whether competition versus the deregulation of telecommunications is the best mechanism
for encouraging broadband deployment. The bill was not yet completed at the time of this writing;
however, a letter signed by Senators Allen and Boxer outlining the bill states, "This debate has reached
an unproductive stalemate and fails to consider that other technologies are available that can jump-start
consumer-driven investment and demand in broadband services."
The letter also explains the legislation is designed to "foster a third alternative mode of broadband
communication, making more unlicensed spectrum available for exciting, new wireless technologies and
requiring the FCC to design minimum rules of the road for broadband devices to operate in that
spectrum."
Allen and Boxer claim the innovations and advances in the development of unlicensed wireless, radiobased
networks (currently known as Wi-Fi) offer an additional means of delivering data at high speed and
also enable the creation of new business models for delivering broadband connectivity.