As Google has pointed out previously, the vast majority of viable spectrum in this country simply goes unused, or else is grossly underutilized. Our nation typically uses only about five percent of one of our most precious resources.It's remarkable that Google proposed more "conservative" approach than spectrum sensing, which switches frequency by geo-location databases.
Coupled with the “Android” open source platform for mobile consumer devices, TV white spaces can provide uniquely low-cost mobile broadband coverage for all Americans. As announced last fall, over thirty other companies are working with Google through the Open Handset Alliance to develop a fully open source software stack, including the operating system, middleware, and user applications.
There are many ways to safely and reliably protect DTVs and wireless microphones, not all of which require spectrum sensing. Last fall, Motorola submitted a proposal in this proceeding that relies on a combination of geo-location (to protect broadcast TV) and beacons (to protect wireless microphones). Google believes both concepts, along with a “safe harbor” approach, should be seriously considered for incorporation into the FCC’s service requirements for the spectrum.
In short, FCC rules should specify only what is allowed, not how that result is to be achieved, or by whom. Much like the Internet itself, the agency’s specifications should as much as possible enable “innovation without permission".
Saturday, March 29, 2008
Google's Letter to the FCC
The open letter by Rick Whitt of Google is published on the FCC's website. Excerpts:
Friday, March 28, 2008
A Proposal of "White Space Auction"
I wrote an article with Lixin Ye of Ohio State University that proposed reverse auctions that enable the government to buy the spectrum from incumbents. This mechanism could be applied to UHF band in Japan.
Japanese government (MIC) plans to stop the analog broadcasting in July 2011. But there are 130 million TVs in Japan, of which only 30 millions have been switched to "DTV-ready". As 10 million DTVs are sold per year, at least 50 million analog TVs would remain in 2011. It would be very dangerous politically for the MIC to scrap the 50 million TVs that would outrage vast numbers of audience.
In the United States, the FCC had to put off the deadline in 2006. And if it stops the analog broadcasting in 2009, there would remain approximately 6 million people whose TVs black out, because more than 80 per cent of audience watch cable TVs, according to NY Times. If the FCC issues $80 coupons for all of them, it would cost $480 million. However, it can be easily compensated by the auction fee of 100 MHz for $19.6 billion, according to WSJ.
The situation is worse in Japan, because the MIC refused to adopt spectrum auctions. If the MIC issue $80 coupons for 50 million TVs, it would cost $4 billion. The MIC is struggling to compensate it with the "spectrum usage fee" mainly paid by mobile operators. But the fee amounts to only $500 million per year, and mobile operators are strongly opposing such unfair income transfer from mobile users to TV stations.
So our mechanism can be applied to the white spaces. The MIC can auction the cost of converters to the entrant for white spaces. It isn't a spectrum auction but an usual auction of state-owned assets such as real estates. If entrants buy at 150 MHz for $4 billion, the cost per MHz will be $26.6 million, much cheaper than the cost of 700 MHz auction, $196 million/MHz.
Indeed it's "bribing" TV stations who should pay the cost of transition, but it would be more efficient than the simultaneous broadcasting that occupies both digital and analog bands, as the Coase Theorem suggests. Of course the TV stations that would be subsidized by entrants should open the white spaces as fast as possible. And they should pay other costs such as setting up antennas.
This is a tentative proposal, but it would be better for consumers, entrants, and incumbents than the wasteful simultaneous broadcasting.
Japanese government (MIC) plans to stop the analog broadcasting in July 2011. But there are 130 million TVs in Japan, of which only 30 millions have been switched to "DTV-ready". As 10 million DTVs are sold per year, at least 50 million analog TVs would remain in 2011. It would be very dangerous politically for the MIC to scrap the 50 million TVs that would outrage vast numbers of audience.
In the United States, the FCC had to put off the deadline in 2006. And if it stops the analog broadcasting in 2009, there would remain approximately 6 million people whose TVs black out, because more than 80 per cent of audience watch cable TVs, according to NY Times. If the FCC issues $80 coupons for all of them, it would cost $480 million. However, it can be easily compensated by the auction fee of 100 MHz for $19.6 billion, according to WSJ.
The situation is worse in Japan, because the MIC refused to adopt spectrum auctions. If the MIC issue $80 coupons for 50 million TVs, it would cost $4 billion. The MIC is struggling to compensate it with the "spectrum usage fee" mainly paid by mobile operators. But the fee amounts to only $500 million per year, and mobile operators are strongly opposing such unfair income transfer from mobile users to TV stations.
So our mechanism can be applied to the white spaces. The MIC can auction the cost of converters to the entrant for white spaces. It isn't a spectrum auction but an usual auction of state-owned assets such as real estates. If entrants buy at 150 MHz for $4 billion, the cost per MHz will be $26.6 million, much cheaper than the cost of 700 MHz auction, $196 million/MHz.
Indeed it's "bribing" TV stations who should pay the cost of transition, but it would be more efficient than the simultaneous broadcasting that occupies both digital and analog bands, as the Coase Theorem suggests. Of course the TV stations that would be subsidized by entrants should open the white spaces as fast as possible. And they should pay other costs such as setting up antennas.
This is a tentative proposal, but it would be better for consumers, entrants, and incumbents than the wasteful simultaneous broadcasting.
Thursday, March 27, 2008
The Powers That Be
Google sent a letter to the FCC to open the white spaces in the UHF band. Microsoft is cooperating with Google in fighting with the FCC. Last year the FCC tested their cognitive radio technology and concluded that interference could not be avoided, but Bill Gates insists that it is possible to allocate the white spaces to Wi-Fi and other broadband radio technologies.
National Association of Broadcasting (NAB) quickly released a statement with 70 politicians that nobody can eliminate the interference completely when the white spaces are used by users without licenses. It's true nobody can guarantee something never happens. Even NAB can't guarantee that David Rehr, the President of NAB, will never be killed in a traffic accident. If so, do they demand the government to enforce everybody not to drive until the traffic accident is completely eliminated?
Japanese broadcasters also succeeded in blocking their competitors with their strong political power. There are few Multiple Systems Operators (MSO) in Japan because the licenses of cable operators were limited in a city. The transponders of broadcasting satellites were filled up by the subsidiaries of broadcasters. They insists that IP broadcasting is not broadcasting because it distributes the program on demand in the last one mile.
Since the "reporter's clubs" in the government bureaus are monopolized by newspapers and TVs that control the information of the government, media can cover up the "inconvenient truth" for them. Even worth, most TV stations' largest shareholders are newspapers, so newspapers don't criticize TVs and vice versa.
In 2006, when the Fair Trade Commission tried to remove the exception of Anti-Trust Act that enables newspapers to set retail prices by collusion, all newspapers in Japan insisted that FTC was destroying katsuji bunka (culture of movable type) and many politicians including Sanae Takaichi, a notorious fighter against the Internet who is trying to enact Communication Decency Act in Japan.
So broadcasters in Japan collude to refuse the Internet. When Livedoor, an Internet startup, tried to buy a radio station in 2005, broadcasters argued against the bid, and Takafumi Horie, the president of Livedoor, was arrested in charge of "creative accounting" at last.
All incumbent Japanese broadcasters deploy BS Conditional Access System (B-CAS) that encrypts airwaves and decrypts them with a card in the digital TV set. It's strange because the DTV is free broadcasting. Why do they encrypt the spectrum to be broadcast free? They say it implements Digital Rights Management (DRM) that permits audience to copy programs only once.
But there is no free broadcasting that restricts copying in other countries. In the United States, broadcast flag was judged illegal. In Japan, the MIC (Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communication) didn't enforce the DRM, but all TV stations and TV manufacturers made a cartel to implement B-CAS, which has no legal ground.
It's funny that the president of B-CAS company is an amakudari (descendant from the parent company) from NHK, a pubic broadcasting station. NHK has been involved in serial scandals recently, but it insists that it should not be privatized. Why does NHK deploy B-CAS, a private CAS that encrypts their programs? NHK answers that it doesn't encrypt the emergency news because they are public. Does it mean the other NHK programs aren't public? It would violate the Broadcasting Act that prohibits NHK to exclude anybody from watching it.
So B-CAS might be the violation of Anti-Trust Act and the Broadcasting Act, but no media accuse it because they are affiliates of TV stations. There is no freedom of speech in Japanese media. They are often called the Fourth Estate, but in Japan they are The Powers That Be, as David Halberstam said.
National Association of Broadcasting (NAB) quickly released a statement with 70 politicians that nobody can eliminate the interference completely when the white spaces are used by users without licenses. It's true nobody can guarantee something never happens. Even NAB can't guarantee that David Rehr, the President of NAB, will never be killed in a traffic accident. If so, do they demand the government to enforce everybody not to drive until the traffic accident is completely eliminated?
Japanese broadcasters also succeeded in blocking their competitors with their strong political power. There are few Multiple Systems Operators (MSO) in Japan because the licenses of cable operators were limited in a city. The transponders of broadcasting satellites were filled up by the subsidiaries of broadcasters. They insists that IP broadcasting is not broadcasting because it distributes the program on demand in the last one mile.
Since the "reporter's clubs" in the government bureaus are monopolized by newspapers and TVs that control the information of the government, media can cover up the "inconvenient truth" for them. Even worth, most TV stations' largest shareholders are newspapers, so newspapers don't criticize TVs and vice versa.
In 2006, when the Fair Trade Commission tried to remove the exception of Anti-Trust Act that enables newspapers to set retail prices by collusion, all newspapers in Japan insisted that FTC was destroying katsuji bunka (culture of movable type) and many politicians including Sanae Takaichi, a notorious fighter against the Internet who is trying to enact Communication Decency Act in Japan.
So broadcasters in Japan collude to refuse the Internet. When Livedoor, an Internet startup, tried to buy a radio station in 2005, broadcasters argued against the bid, and Takafumi Horie, the president of Livedoor, was arrested in charge of "creative accounting" at last.
All incumbent Japanese broadcasters deploy BS Conditional Access System (B-CAS) that encrypts airwaves and decrypts them with a card in the digital TV set. It's strange because the DTV is free broadcasting. Why do they encrypt the spectrum to be broadcast free? They say it implements Digital Rights Management (DRM) that permits audience to copy programs only once.
But there is no free broadcasting that restricts copying in other countries. In the United States, broadcast flag was judged illegal. In Japan, the MIC (Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communication) didn't enforce the DRM, but all TV stations and TV manufacturers made a cartel to implement B-CAS, which has no legal ground.
It's funny that the president of B-CAS company is an amakudari (descendant from the parent company) from NHK, a pubic broadcasting station. NHK has been involved in serial scandals recently, but it insists that it should not be privatized. Why does NHK deploy B-CAS, a private CAS that encrypts their programs? NHK answers that it doesn't encrypt the emergency news because they are public. Does it mean the other NHK programs aren't public? It would violate the Broadcasting Act that prohibits NHK to exclude anybody from watching it.
So B-CAS might be the violation of Anti-Trust Act and the Broadcasting Act, but no media accuse it because they are affiliates of TV stations. There is no freedom of speech in Japanese media. They are often called the Fourth Estate, but in Japan they are The Powers That Be, as David Halberstam said.
Wednesday, March 26, 2008
Japanese government promotes collusion
In the usual spectrum auction, collusion is strictly prohibited. But Japanese government (MIC) promotes collusion. This is a tradition in Japan, called kansei dango (government-made collusion).
In the 1950s, when many companies applied for the TV licenses, Kakuei Tanaka, a powerful politician, made the rule that gives the license to the applicant if many companies collude to one. Since then, collusion (ipponka) has been the official rule of the MIC.
But Softbank cried foul when MIC tried to give the licenses of 2.5GHz band to two companies they selected last year. So MIC reluctantly held a beauty contest in public for the first time in the Japanese history.
The result, however, was surprising. MIC selected KDDI that would use Mobile WiMAX as expected, but another was Willcom, whose technology "Next-generation PHS" was not deployed in any country. Moreover, its main shareholder is Carlyle Group, whose subsidiary went bankruptcy in the subprime turmoil.
Even worse, MIC held kansei dango in the VHF and UHF band. An expert said that there was an implicit contract that MIC would give VHF band to broadcasters and UHF to telecom carriers. And the technology that would be adopted in the VHF band is ISDB-T, which is adopted only in Japan and Brazil. Many experts are worried that MIC would repeat the fiasco of PDC, developed by NTT and enforced by MIC, which isolated Japanese mobile operators and manufacturers in the global market.
Technologically, the collusion makes no sense because some semiconductor makers implement DVB (international de facto standard), MediaFLO (adopted in the U.S.), and ISDB-T in one chip. Why is MIC selecting technology when all of them can be implemented in one handset? In the VHF band, more than twenty "mobile broadcasting" channels can be deployed. It would be easy and fair to let twenty operators compete and let the market pick up the winner, which would buy the loser.
In the 1950s, when many companies applied for the TV licenses, Kakuei Tanaka, a powerful politician, made the rule that gives the license to the applicant if many companies collude to one. Since then, collusion (ipponka) has been the official rule of the MIC.
But Softbank cried foul when MIC tried to give the licenses of 2.5GHz band to two companies they selected last year. So MIC reluctantly held a beauty contest in public for the first time in the Japanese history.
The result, however, was surprising. MIC selected KDDI that would use Mobile WiMAX as expected, but another was Willcom, whose technology "Next-generation PHS" was not deployed in any country. Moreover, its main shareholder is Carlyle Group, whose subsidiary went bankruptcy in the subprime turmoil.
Even worse, MIC held kansei dango in the VHF and UHF band. An expert said that there was an implicit contract that MIC would give VHF band to broadcasters and UHF to telecom carriers. And the technology that would be adopted in the VHF band is ISDB-T, which is adopted only in Japan and Brazil. Many experts are worried that MIC would repeat the fiasco of PDC, developed by NTT and enforced by MIC, which isolated Japanese mobile operators and manufacturers in the global market.
Technologically, the collusion makes no sense because some semiconductor makers implement DVB (international de facto standard), MediaFLO (adopted in the U.S.), and ISDB-T in one chip. Why is MIC selecting technology when all of them can be implemented in one handset? In the VHF band, more than twenty "mobile broadcasting" channels can be deployed. It would be easy and fair to let twenty operators compete and let the market pick up the winner, which would buy the loser.
Starting up
This blog is specialized in the spectrum policy in Japan.
Japanese government is planning to stop analog broadcasting until 2011. However, since there remain almost 100 million analog TVs in Japan, this is a very risky project. In 2011, MIC would have to scrap more than 50 million analog TVs.
However, assumig the band will be evacuated, MIC held closed "meetings" of firms to allocate spectrum. Total frequencies to be allocated are more than 180 MHz:
In the Unites States, the FCC auctioned 700MHz band, and Wireless Innovation Alliance led by Google, Microsoft, Dell, HP and other companies, demanded the FCC to open the white spaces occupied by TV stations but unused.
But Japanese government is going to give it away even without beauty contests. We object against this command and control approach. Even if they don't auction them, at least fair and open "beauty contests" with objective criteria should be held. We are going to report the situation in Japan by this blog.
As we need to know the situation in other countries, comments are welcome. You can join the members of this blog if you e-mail me.
Japanese government is planning to stop analog broadcasting until 2011. However, since there remain almost 100 million analog TVs in Japan, this is a very risky project. In 2011, MIC would have to scrap more than 50 million analog TVs.
However, assumig the band will be evacuated, MIC held closed "meetings" of firms to allocate spectrum. Total frequencies to be allocated are more than 180 MHz:
- VHF band: 70MHz (part of 90-222 MHz)
- UHF band: 60MHz (710-770 MHz)
- 1.7GHz (GSM band): 35MHz (1.75-1.785GHz)
- 2GHz band: 15MHz (2.01-2.025GHz)
In the Unites States, the FCC auctioned 700MHz band, and Wireless Innovation Alliance led by Google, Microsoft, Dell, HP and other companies, demanded the FCC to open the white spaces occupied by TV stations but unused.
But Japanese government is going to give it away even without beauty contests. We object against this command and control approach. Even if they don't auction them, at least fair and open "beauty contests" with objective criteria should be held. We are going to report the situation in Japan by this blog.
As we need to know the situation in other countries, comments are welcome. You can join the members of this blog if you e-mail me.
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