The "Spectrum Crunch"

[manic_depressive13]

Okay, so I recently encountered this claim that we are quickly running out of bandwidth in the air. Anyone who still watches Extra Credits would have seen them discuss it in their last episode, and it made me pretty curious to see what you guys think. Here's an article on it.

There's no question that spectrum is a greatly utilized resource. More consumers than ever before are using smartphones and tablets, like the iPad, and those devices use significantly more spectrum than simple mobile phones due to their data streaming capabilities. The government estimates that today's smartphones use 24 times the spectrum as older phones. And tablets? They can use 120 times more spectrum!

With the increased demand for these devices, companies like AT&T and Verizon are clamoring to obtain more spectrum. But whether or not there is truly a "crunch" or "crisis" on the horizon is a hotly debated topic in Washington, D.C.

In fact, it's been widely publicized that many of the wireless providers who are voicing concerns about a spectrum crunch are also in possession of a great deal of spectrum that simply has not been fully utilized. Some press reports indicate that wireless companies and others may be sitting on more than $15 billion of spectrum they aren't using.

Yet, when the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) released its National Broadband Plan in 2010, it reflected the wireless industry's arguments, calling for the reallocation of spectrum, including airwaves currently used by local television broadcasters.

Though the debate continues over the issue of a spectrum "crisis," the federal government is making decisions on how to reclaim broadcast spectrum and auction it off for other services.

http://www.thefutureoftv.org/spectrum101/IsThereACrisis.asp

So what do you think? Is this thing real? If it is, what are the implications? What are the possible solutions? How serious is this issue and how much is it being exaggerated? Discuss.

 

[Eclectic Dreck]

So what do you think? Is this thing real? If it is, what are the implications? What are the possible solutions? How serious is this issue and how much is it being exaggerated? Discuss.

.

Well, it certainly is real in the purest sense. What it means is, given current technology, there is simply an upper limit to the number of smart phones any given tower can handle at a given bandwidth. By and large, simple voice communications are fine - they use very little bandwidth and cellular penetration is near enough to total that it won't really be a problem. Urban density in general guarantees that any particular tower would serve few enough customers that we should be fine on that front.

The near term effect is that providers would have stricter limits and higher fees for data packages and you'd likely see cuts in bandwidth in general.

Luckily, there are lots of solutions to the problem. Going with a much higher number o shorter ranged towers would reduce the operating demands of any particular transmitter/receiver. The problem with this approach is simply cost and the fact that most cellular devices would require a redesign so they could have a more widely variable signal strength. Increasing the number of towers only helps if you can arbitrarily reduce the footprint of phones after all.