Habilitando la Sociedad de la Información con una regulación neutral: la Visión general de la Industria inalámbrica

Banda ancha inalámbrica permite mayores avances en cualquier aplicación importante que afecta a nuestra sociedad. Gracias al compromiso de muchas personas que allanaron el camino para firmar el Acuerdo de Cooperación, el mundo está a punto de realizar grandes avances a través de varias redes de tercera y cuarta generación.  

Nota del editor: Artículo sólo disponible en inglés.

Wireless broadband enables major advances in almost every important application that affects our society.  Thanks to the commitment of so many in this audience who paved the way for signing the Cooperation Agreement, the world is on verge of great advances via several varieties of Fourth and Third Generation networks. 

WCA’s view is that a technology-neutral approach is crucial to prepare for the exciting applications in the Information Society we are each striving to achieve.  Important technology developments occur on a daily basis, leading to an uncertain future.  If we proceed with an open mind, regulators and other opinion leaders have a more reliable way to collect from industry the business and technical input needed for wise decisions.   This does not mean there is never a time to choose a technology – only that an open mind is vital.  This is much like a court:  Decisions are made, but always with the possiblity of error, review and new measures.

Concerning specific strategies, WCA is focusing increasingly on applications.  This is fully congruent with this conference’s impressive announcement by the ITU and CITEL concerning the Cooperation Agreement.  Applications for 4G networks will drive demand far beyond consumer services helping individuals and business.  These applications are expanding to encompass education, tele-medicine, public safety, disaster relief, critical infrastructure and improved agriculture.  Moreover, it helps community economic development in both rural and urban communities, along with such specialty areas as tourism.  The link between Gross Domestic Product and Broadband penetration is clearly illustrated in a recent study by the OECD, with a correlation of .6%.

Wireless broadband services have vital political implications beyond economic progress and improving GDP.  The services can enable many Internet applications that allow for the free flow of information beyond the mass media’s control.  This helps foster individual freedom and democracy.  Our industry plays a critical role in enabling affordable, IP access that can be used to publicize human rights abuses and protect democratic freedoms.  At the same time, these same networks can provide enormous -- and very welcome -- efficiencies enabling better security at borders and harbors, and also for law enforcement -- as well as for a modern, mobile military for defense.

WCA has important ties to leaders in each of these applications, in part by leveraging our long track record of regulatory work.  This is summarized in many places on our website (www.wcai.com), particularly in the sections on committees, conventions and newsletters.  WCA has the advantage of more latitude for experimentation to help develop new markets than most organizations.  This is thanks to WCA’s strong tradition of entrepreneurship.  WCA draws on many years experience in finding common ground between major established players and new entrants.  The result brings both competition and vitality to the broadband industry, while avoiding the common tendency of those who work with start-ups to hype technology fads. 

WCA’s regulatory work seeks to reach a consensus between industry and regulating bodies on complicated technical and policy issues that enable deployments of advanced systems.  One of our most notable successes came through years of advocacy to national and international regulators to authorize mobile, interactive networks in what had been a fixed band of 2.5-2.7 GHz originally used primarily for video but now considered one of the most attractive bands for WiMAX and other 4G networks.  That work has been supplemented by numerous parallel efforts in bands ranging from 700 MHz up to 80+ GHz, including important work on bands used for backhaul and other critical infrastructure needs.

In general, we believe that the outlook for the wireless industry is strong -- so long as regulatory policies facilitate deployments.  Such policies should include the following elements:

• Technology and Service Neutrality: This increases competition.  Removing the regulatory advantage one technology or service has over another helps level the playing field for new competitors.

• Spectrum Harmonization:  This lowers costs.  Availability of spectrum is critical for enabling mass-market deployments.  Volume drives the economies of scale that will enable the industry to deliver the most cost-effective, highest performance services and equipment possible to consumers.

• Spectrum Trading: This increases spectral efficiency.  Re-assigning excess spectrum capacity to others can help ensure spectrum is utilized fully and efficiently.   Spectrum trading provides faster access to spectrum, which promotes the development of new technologies.

• Basic Regulation to Minimize Interference:  Operators need minimal technical and operational requirements to ensure they can benefit from the full value of their spectrum and are not subject to interference from other operators.

• Regulatory Certainty:  Regulatory uncertainty can dampen investment, innovation and market entry. 

Everyone is familiar with the complexity of these issues when regulators try to forecast the future for competition and the public.  Yet the benefits are worth it, as illustrated by exciting applications enabled by broadband and fully congruent with the themes of the Information Society agenda.

Andrew Kreig
President
WCA