« Wi-Fi Alliance Improves Symbols for Certification | Main | Wayport Metrics »

May 25, 2004

Educational Institutions May Lose Some Spectrum

By Glenn Fleishman

Wall Street Journal says instructional television spectrum may be resold: This interesting article looks into the FCC’s exploration of reselling parts of the licensed band that’s used in a very limited fashion for instructional television. While originally assigned for that purpose, only a few institutions actually use it. Institutions are allowed to sublicense 95 percent of their spectrum as long as they’re broadcasting, and apparently, some groups broadcast meaningless content in order to bring in the revenue from the other licenses.

The FCC is licking its lips at the sweet spot in the 2.5-2.7 GHz range that comprises ITFS/MMDS (instructional television fixed service and multichannel multipoint distribution service). Nextel, Craig McCaw, and other companies have purchased sublicenses across the band.

The FCC proposal would reassign some spectrum for its own auctions, and allow educational entities to resell spectrum for new uses which could produce billions in revenue for the institutions. One scenario spun by an opponent is that California’s governor could sell ITFS spectrum to help balance the state budget.

Posted by Glennf at May 25, 2004 1:14 PM

Categories: Academia, Financial, Politics

Trackback Pings

TrackBack URL for this entry:
https://db.isbn.nu/mt3/mt-tb.pl/1970

Comments