Finding 500 MHz of spectrum

[Commentary] In order for the Federal Communications Commission to "find" 500 MHz of spectrum, there will have to be many changes to the spectrum map as we know it today.

The first 300 MHz is to be released for use within five years with the next 200 MHz becoming available within ten years. But where will this spectrum come from? One answer is to squeeze the TV stations even further down the band. Since each channel occupies 6 MHz of bandwidth, if the FCC decided to move TV stations using channels 31 to 52, for example, that would open up 126 MHz of spectrum. If the TV stations were all pushed down below channel 20, that would open up another 66 MHz for a total of 192 MHz. Because this spectrum occupies the 500 MHz to almost 700 MHz spectrum, it would be even more valuable than the 700 MHz spectrum since it would require even fewer cell sites to cover large areas and its in-building penetration characteristics are near ideal. The best hope for finding more spectrum appears to be a combination of relocating some of the TV channels, moving some license holders higher in frequency, and finding government spectrum that could be turned over for commercial broadband use.

But at the end of the day, it is important to remember a few things. Even with 500 MHz of additional spectrum, and even with new technologies, there is not enough spectrum available to be able to move the Internet to an entirely wireless system. Wireless will continue to be the last mile, and the wired Internet has it owns capacity issues. We will have to better manage our spectrum and our Internet going forward.