Baylink
Member
As you may remember, a couple of years ago, Google bid sagans of dollars for a 700 MHz 'C block' wireless license. They lost, of course, to Verizon, but most observers seemed to think that they *wanted* to lose -- Google's purpose in bidding, they say, was not to *win the license*, but to gain leverage with the FCC to impose conditions on whomever *did* win the license.
Google wanted four:
"""
In a filing with the FCC on July 9, Google urged the Commission to adopt rules for the auction that ensure that, regardless of who wins the spectrum at auction, consumers' interests are served. Specifically, Google encouraged the FCC to require the adoption of four types of "open" platforms as part of the license conditions:
* Open applications: Consumers should be able to download and utilize any software applications, content, or services they desire;
* Open devices: Consumers should be able to utilize a handheld communications device with whatever wireless network they prefer;
* Open services: Third parties (resellers) should be able to acquire wireless services from a 700 MHz licensee on a wholesale basis, based on reasonably nondiscriminatory commercial terms; and
* Open networks: Third parties (like internet service providers) should be able to interconnect at any technically feasible point in a 700 MHz licensee's wireless network.
"""
They got the first and second: assuming Verizon follows the rules after buildout (and there's some concern that they won't: 700 MHz Update: Will VZ Comply with the Rules? ), then users will be able to pay Verizon their however-much money a month (I'm predicting $80 a month to open, dropping to $60 a month later; getting Verizon to provide your PSTN-voice termination service for you will likely cost a bit more)...
and then you'll be able to buy your LTE700 compatible handheld from *anyone*, in any formfactor they choose to build it, running any app that looks like a neat idea.
This has some very interesting implications for people who presently use services like Nextel, or GMRS/MURS/business band, and even commercial trunking radio:
All of those services can be simulated, quite effectively, by applications running on small handheld computers with wireless IP connectivity, and a carrier who isn't getting in the way. There are even standard protocols, like PTT over Cellular, for which I believe there's an adaptation for SIP/RTP.
And given the wide applicability of such devices, the odds of the "prosumer" segment of the market -- devices rugged enough and flexible enough for non-consumer user, but not built to go in a turnout coat or be rolled over onto while fighting a meth head, as someone put it in a thread yesterday
-- expanding seem pretty bright.
Additionally, LTE700 will be being rolled out in the D-block, on networks *built for public safety*, so there will be high-end devices available as well, and those will probably be easily modified to use a commercial C-block service like the one Verizon will offer.
But even for people who can't afford $2000 Nextel r765's, or $6500 Harris Unity XG-100's, you'll still be able to load an (interoperable!) app to talk to such networks on your smartphone. Which leads me inexorably to wonder about the affects of this on business-band radio, just as cellphones have beat the heck out of... Timex.
So, assuming that Verizon's feet are held to the fire, I suspect we'll see a fair amount of development in this market in the next 2 to 5 years, and things will get very interesting.
Except, of course, for scanner listeners; since that service is point to point, we won't be able to hear any of that traffic at all, unless the network operators feed it themselves. :-}
Thoughts, anyone?
Google wanted four:
"""
In a filing with the FCC on July 9, Google urged the Commission to adopt rules for the auction that ensure that, regardless of who wins the spectrum at auction, consumers' interests are served. Specifically, Google encouraged the FCC to require the adoption of four types of "open" platforms as part of the license conditions:
* Open applications: Consumers should be able to download and utilize any software applications, content, or services they desire;
* Open devices: Consumers should be able to utilize a handheld communications device with whatever wireless network they prefer;
* Open services: Third parties (resellers) should be able to acquire wireless services from a 700 MHz licensee on a wholesale basis, based on reasonably nondiscriminatory commercial terms; and
* Open networks: Third parties (like internet service providers) should be able to interconnect at any technically feasible point in a 700 MHz licensee's wireless network.
"""
They got the first and second: assuming Verizon follows the rules after buildout (and there's some concern that they won't: 700 MHz Update: Will VZ Comply with the Rules? ), then users will be able to pay Verizon their however-much money a month (I'm predicting $80 a month to open, dropping to $60 a month later; getting Verizon to provide your PSTN-voice termination service for you will likely cost a bit more)...
and then you'll be able to buy your LTE700 compatible handheld from *anyone*, in any formfactor they choose to build it, running any app that looks like a neat idea.
This has some very interesting implications for people who presently use services like Nextel, or GMRS/MURS/business band, and even commercial trunking radio:
All of those services can be simulated, quite effectively, by applications running on small handheld computers with wireless IP connectivity, and a carrier who isn't getting in the way. There are even standard protocols, like PTT over Cellular, for which I believe there's an adaptation for SIP/RTP.
And given the wide applicability of such devices, the odds of the "prosumer" segment of the market -- devices rugged enough and flexible enough for non-consumer user, but not built to go in a turnout coat or be rolled over onto while fighting a meth head, as someone put it in a thread yesterday
-- expanding seem pretty bright.Additionally, LTE700 will be being rolled out in the D-block, on networks *built for public safety*, so there will be high-end devices available as well, and those will probably be easily modified to use a commercial C-block service like the one Verizon will offer.
But even for people who can't afford $2000 Nextel r765's, or $6500 Harris Unity XG-100's, you'll still be able to load an (interoperable!) app to talk to such networks on your smartphone. Which leads me inexorably to wonder about the affects of this on business-band radio, just as cellphones have beat the heck out of... Timex.
So, assuming that Verizon's feet are held to the fire, I suspect we'll see a fair amount of development in this market in the next 2 to 5 years, and things will get very interesting.
Except, of course, for scanner listeners; since that service is point to point, we won't be able to hear any of that traffic at all, unless the network operators feed it themselves. :-}
Thoughts, anyone?
