Posts Tagged ‘Carterfone’
The 700-MHz Wireless Spectrum
In a few days the companies that spent $19.6 Billion for the 700MHz spectrum will have allowed a full year to pass without implementation or adherence to the the FCC “openness” and Carterfone (Carterphone).
What is “Carterfone?” Back in the 60′s, a man by the name Thomas Carter created a device called the Carterfone. The Carterfone was a device that by design, allowed a person to be connected to a two-way radio at the base station serving a mobile radio system – kind of like Motorola’s Direct Connect® where a voice control circuit in the Carterfone automatically switches on the radio transmitter when the telephone caller is speaking; when s/he stops speaking, the radio returns to a receiving condition.
In 1968, AT&T and others were demanding Carter to discontinue or ELSE! So, Thomas Carter filed a private antitrust action against American Telephone and Telegraph Co. and General Telephone Co. of the Southwest … The end result, in June of 1968, the FCC granted Carter Electronics Corporation the sale of the Carterfone and a new ruling appeared, FCC 68-661 or 13 F.C.C.2d 420 (1968).
Unlike the “land-line” telephone and the Carterfone ruling, cellphone telephony technology has evaded the FCC’s 13 F.C.C.2d 420 (1968) or Carterfone rules … until recently.
The famous Carnegie Mellon professor, David Farber, outlined the provisions made by the FCC and the leasing of the spectrum to various companies such as Verizon, AT&T, and Google – BUT, since January 16, 2008, has there been a change? Now, it appears that if the cellphone subscribers plan to use the 700 MHz spectrum, the companies have to abide the Carterfone rules.
Verizon opened its heart and allowed Any Apps, Any Device in 2008, but is that legitimately working and in place where someone like yourself can take any device and add it to Verizon? Is the iPhone working well with the lovely Verizon service (recall the red United States map advertisement?) Are other mobile phone companies playing by the Carterphone-style open access rule?
Columbia University professor, Tim Wu, who is trying to get the FCC to follow its landmark precedent requiring that communications networks remain open to any device or application, happens to also be the very same professor who helped inspire Google to form its wireless strategy and petition the FCC to recognize and follow the rules of openness regarding the use of the 700-MHz spectrum.
The Carterphone open access basically means that you can attach any telephone to the telephone line … and of course, now it is updated to include handset/mobile devices. Faber stated that he believes:
Carterphone is a bit outlandish. Carterphone never gave people the right to use those phone lines for whatever you want, data or anything. There were constraints on it. It was a fairly narrow thing, and it’s held now for a long time because there were/are protective circuits that were put into the devices you attached.”
Truth be told, it is a year later. Have you noticed any change? $19.6 Billion for the spectrum, however ripped and split between the companies aforementioned, has there been a change? What, am I being unrealsitic for a few companies to change how they play the mobile device game? What it comes down to is this – In the economic state that “American” companies (or what little is left) are currently in, along side the precarious and downtrodden economy, I would like answers if I were a shareholder of the company who purchased this spectrum.
Faber made sure to also mention that open access (should mean) you can attach anything you want that doesn’t interfere with other uses of the spectrum, and you can do anything you want on it — that is what it should turn out to be. Not exactly true to form as of yet.
There is a bigger and more interesting problem, the FCC outlined or implied, that of proper use of the spectrum. Whatever the case, or how it turns out, forcing television to digital, in-turn provided a product to sell to our large “in-the-black” corporations. AT&T, Verizon, Sprint, and of course Google. These companies are believed to be valued well over a couple of Billions of dollars, and the mobile phone or mobile device industry is believed to be worth well over $100 Billion per year, alone for the mobile product and service. Regardless of cost and overhead, cell phones are valuable assets to the cellphone provider or subscriber company. I do not think it is unfair in what is practiced, but if there is a ruling, well, then these companies are simply not adhering to what the FCC outlined as fair in regard to telephony technology.
This may seem abstract or fancy talk, so let me provide an example. If I were to send an attachment to my phone, I know that Verizon inspects that attachment and if it is on the naughty list, it is removed (a music file, or video that is not accepted or, more importantly sold by the subscribing company – in my example Verizon). Try this … send a music file to your phone and see if it is in the attachment to add to your cell phone as a ring tone. Didn’t work? If it did, did you hack your cell phone because of the inability to add a ring tone without purchasing one from the company that provides cell phone access to you? Enough said.
In the end, we the consumer, have no real “Carterfone” say when as to what we would like to add or improve from the handset or cellphone provider. Supposedly this is going to change soon.
In conclusion, more-or-less, the sale of the 700MHz was a way to bring money ($19.6 Billion) to a government that is buried “in-the-red.”
Sources:
- Gardiner, Bryan. Spectrum Auction: How Open Is Open? How Much Is Too Much? 2007 -[08/29/2007] .
- Gardiner, Bryan. In Spectrum Auction, Winners Are AT&T, Verizon and Openness 2008 – [03/20/2008] .
- Gerace & Stark. Verizon Wireless To Introduce ‘Any Apps, Any Device’ Option For Customers In 2008 2007 – [11/27/2007] .
- FCC Auction 73 & 76 – A PowerPoint From the FCC Pre-auction Procedures for 73 & 76 (700 MHz) 2007 – [11/16/2007].
- Lienhard, John. Breaking the Monopoly 1997.
- Ante, Spencer. Opening the Wireless Internet: The Importance of Carterfone 2009 – [08/03/2009].
- Ante, Spencer. Tim Wu, Freedom Fighter 2007 – [11/19/2007].
- http://www.openhandsetalliance.com/android_overview.html
- http://www.uiowa.edu/~cyberlaw/FCCOps/1968/13F2-420.html
- http://www.verizonwireless.com/b2c/CoverageLocatorController
