WITHOUT WIRES
It was 1910. In St. Johns, Newfoundland, when Guglielmo Marconi jumped with joy as his wireless radio picks up the Morse Code signal for the letter "S" being transmitted from his station in England. He was delighted his device worked -- but there was no way he could have known how much trouble wireless communications would be causing only 93 years later.
How could he know? Back then, there was no need for frequency management. Now, however, we have just about run out of frequency. That's right -- we're running out of room in the radio spectrum. Bidding wars have become common in the struggle to use the public airwaves.
One of the hottest battles going on right now is for the current space used by television. It seems the wireless folks want that space for what they say is an ever-expanding customer base and for wireless 911 services. You don't suppose "always on" wireless Internet is taking up much space, eh?
Traditional analog television is headed for antiquity. But because there are still millions of analog TVs out there, the broadcasters aren't exactly scrambling to make the change and lose viewers who haven't purchased a converter box.
Frequencies are managed by the Federal Communications Commission out of -- what else? -- the Office of Frequency Management. Beyond being typical government bureaucrats, these folks do their level-best to iron out radio frequency spectrum conflicts all the while keeping the military, commercial broadcasters, amateur radio operators, business people with paging and dispatching needs, local governments and, we are sure, others happy.
What a daunting job! No wonder they are cranky. Licensing is the FCC's way of creating some order to spectrum chaos. When you get a permit, you're assigned a frequency or range of frequencies. At least with permits, the job becomes one of enforcement rather than discovery.
Back to the wireless folks. Eventually, they will get their due. The industry just continues to chomp on the revenue bit, ready to take off out of the paddock -- they say.
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