Customer Expectations, Regulatory Demands, Keep Cellphone Makers Struggling to Keep Up

Sharkey said, for example, more subscribers want multiple band phones, but these phones require multiple sets of radio frequency components - amplifiers, duplexers and filters. All add to the cost, size and complexity of the phone. Multiband phones also mean multiple antennas, often buried in the phone since customers don’t want to see the antenna.

At the same time, regulators are examining requirements that subscribers be able to receive emergency alert system (EAS) warnings over their cellphones as well as new E-911 mandates, which could force carriers to add GPS chips to more phones. The industry also faces mandates that phones comply with electromagnetic exposure requirements in all positions in which they may be used, that more handsets satisfy the needs of the handicapped and that handsets not contain lead or other elements that make them environmentally unfriendly.

Sharkey said regulators don’t always understand all the implications of new mandates. “I'm not sure it’s always understood or they understand fully the practical impact of what they're asking,” he said. “On the other hand, sometimes there are choices that need to be made and manufacturers have to do the best that they can. It’s a balancing of policy and technology.”

Seeking input from panels of experts as regulation is developed can lead to more workable rules, Sharkey said. “That’s why the industry has pushed for them to do the same kind of approach for E-911 they did on EAS,” he said. “[EAS] is given a forum where you can really dig down into the technology as opposed to adopting a benchmark and making sure you can comply with it.” -- Howard Buskirk

Summit Notes…

The telecom world portrayed by opponents of greater net neutrality is closer to the make believe world portrayed in computer games like Myst than the real world of the 21st Century, said Christopher Libertelli, director of government and regulatory affairs at Skype. Skype has asked the FCC apply Carterfone-style rules to allow customers to use their own devices on wireless networks (CD May 17 p5). “It seems to us the lobbyists and lawyers for the network operators are describing this fantastic castle in the sky that’s a perfect market for wireless services,” he said. “To us it bears no relationship to the day-to-day life of software engineers in places like the Silicon Valley or Bangalore or where my company is headquartered in Tallinn, Estonia.” Randy May, president of the Free State Foundation, responded “let me tell you what I think we're really talking about… were talking about whether any justification exists for imposing common carrier regulations on wireless carriers after such regulation was lifted a decade ago.”

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Former FCC Chief of Staff Bryan Tramont said additional spectrum will come on line in coming years, beyond the advanced wireless services (AWS) I band auctioned by the FCC last year and the 700 MHz spectrum scheduled for sale in January. But the FCC has to work through unique problems for each new band, he said. Tramont listed AWS II spectrum -- the H (1915-1920/1995- 2000 MHz) and J block (2020-2025/2175-20800) -- as ready for sale after the 700 MHz auction. Auction of the H block, which is adjacent to existing PCS spectrum, has been especially controversial because of interference concerns, Tramont said. “That’s one of the things that has slowed down the momentum behind trying to get that spectrum into use,” he said. A rulemaking has been pending for the H block since 2004. Tramont also listed the newly named AWS III spectrum as ripe for auction, following completion of a rulemaking. The spectrum, which had been sought by M2Z, is at 2155-2175 MHz. Tramont said several bands which “have been in flux for many years” could see some use soon. Among them is wireless communications services band and the educational broadband service/broadband radio service bands.

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Spectrum etiquette and the need to share spectrum more efficiently are likely to emerge as major themes at the FCC as more users compete for unlicensed spectrum, telecom lawyer Mitchell Lazarus said Tuesday. “Unlicensed radio has been such a huge success that it’s bound to become congested,” he said. “Manufacturers have to get smarter about making unlicensed radios that can share the spectrum creatively and get more users in without losing the reliability that users have come to expect.”