Editorial Scanning…
Next-generation cellular To help commemorate the 20th anniversary of the International Wireless Communications Expo (IWCE), Intertec Publishing produced a four-page brochure titled “IWCE Then and Now.” Copies were distributed at IWCE. (Mercy Contreras, MRT’s group publisher, and Elsa Saavedra, an editor with Intertec, researched and wrote the brochure.)
Some of the research involved reviewing industry news published at the time of the first IWCE, and some of those stories covered plans for the first cellular systems in Washington. The commencement of operations for these systems would come six years later. “Cellular may be successful in Washington,” said people who seemed knowledgeable at the time, “but Washington is unique. It’s doubtful that it will be as successful anywhere else. Certainly not in markets any smaller than the top 10.”
These days, people who seem knowledgeable doubt the success of wideband personal communications services (PCS), another wireless telephone service similar to cellular. Incidentally, consumers have no idea what “wideband PCS” means. We’ve been waiting to see what wideband PCS will be called in public, and right now “the next-generation cellular” seems to be the label applied to the service.
“The next-generation cellular will cost too much to build to be successful,” say people who seem to be knowledgeable. “Cellular operators obtained their licenses for free, but PCS operators have to spend hundreds of millions, even billions of dollars for licenses even before they build. Then, building systems requires more sites and more infrastructure than cellular requires. It may succeed in the largest cities where there is room for more competition, but it can’t succeed elsewhere.”
Maybe cellular would not have grown to the extent it has if it had remained as it originally was conceived–a car phone service. It changed, and almost every cellphone sold today is a portable.
Maybe the next-generation cellular will not grow to become wildly successful if it becomes only another portable telephone service. Integrated services that include data and voice messaging, built-in keyboards and other computer capabilities in addition to voice telephone service may help the next-generation cellular to compete.
We can see that the critics of wideband PCS have a point. Even so, the success of next-generation cellular may result from its becoming something other than initiators envision as they plan to build systems. How to estimate the risk? It can be calculated in the billions.
Summer thaw in Washington While certain segments of the mobile communications industry are obtaining federal licenses to construct facilities and commence operations, other segments continue to be suppressed by moratoriums (freezes) on the issuance of new licenses. The construction and expansion of private radio systems, those systems built by individual companies such as utilities, transportation companies, agribusiness and various commercial enterprises to handle their internal communications, continues to be blocked by freezes. It has been estimated that the purchase of as much as $100 million to $200 million of new equipment has been delayed because of the freezes.
Although pleas to lift the private radio freezes have gone unanswered, a similar interruption of commerce and the possibility of layoffs among manufacturers was sufficient reason for Congress to pressure the FCC to partially lift a freeze on paging licenses. On April 23, the FCC partially lifted the freeze that it imposed on Feb. 8 on new paging license applications.
“The partial lifting of the freeze allows paging companies to apply for additional transmitter sites on a primary basis if (1) the applicant is an incumbent on a non-nationwide common carrier paging channel or an incumbent paging licensee that has earned local or regional exclusivity on a private carrier paging (PCP) channel and (2) the applicant certifies that the proposed site is within 40 miles of an existing (as of Feb. 8) transmitter. Applications that meet these requirements will be placed on public notice and subject to competing applications within the applicable filing window.
“For shared PCP channels, incumbent licensees will have the same opportunity to file applications within 40 miles of an existing site, but will not be subject to competing applications procedures.” (Source: PCIA.) One of the companies most adversely affected by the freeze is Glenayre Technologies, Charlotte, NC. “Glenayre, in partnership with the Coalition for Competitive Paging and other key members of the paging industry, was one of the driving forces behind the FCC’s decision,” said company president Ray Ardizzone. “Our collective comments and visits to the FCC staff and commissioners, and especially the many meetings and tremendous support from a large bipartisan group of congressional representatives and senators, informed the FCC that the freeze, as imposed, was not in the best interest of the paging operators, manufacturers nor the paging-user industry in general.”
The interpretation is that the FCC could not be moved until pressure was applied by Congress. Congress is where the action is when it comes to lifting these kinds of freezes. Maybe the partial lifting of the paging freeze offers an example for private radio. –Don Bishop