700 MHz spectrum auctions still being finalized: Competing proposals address public-safety component. The sale of 60 MHz of the spectrum could raise $15b to $30b for the Treasury. So far, 24 MHz is allotted to public safety. Cyren Call's proposal appears dead as it requires rewriting auction rules, and giving a single company managing a not-for-profit trust control over that segment. One synthesis proposal could take 12 MHz of the public-safety allotment and turn that over to a not-for-profit trust which would hire a commercial partner to build the network; commercial services on that band would have primary access except in emergencies.
Harvard, BBN Technologies plan to deploy weather, pollution sensors: The project has a very long timeframe--100 sensors deployed by 2011!--and would put 802.11a/b/g mesh nodes with across Cambridge, Mass. The reporter hasn't written about municipal networks before because he writes, "The system solves a constraint on previous wireless networks--battery life--by mounting each node on a municipal streetlamp where it draws power from city electricity." Was this written in 1983?