HIGH-TECH HEADS SAY WIRELESS WEB WILL COMPLEMENT, NOT REPLACE, PCS

LAS VEGAS -- FCC Chmn. Powell stressed need for national spectrum planning at CTIA Wireless 2001 show here Tues., while acknowledging importance of policy role of Dept. of Defense for frequencies used for military operations. “We can’t trivialize uses of spectrum for national defense,” he said in response to series of questions from CTIA Pres. Thomas Wheeler. Meanwhile, parade of high-tech executives ranging from Yahoo Co-founder Jerry Yang to Intel Pres.-CEO Craig Barrett stressed that mobile Internet shouldn’t be seen as surpassing fixed-line Web because multiple devices would provide access to Internet.

Powell cited need for “collective thinking on a national, harmonized spectrum policy.” He told opening session of CTIA show that “we are looking for ways to create a better, overarching way of looking at those policies.” He said “critical spectrum” is spread all across govt., reference to commercial bands under purview of FCC and military spectrum ultimately overseen by NTIA. “We do need as well the participation of the Administration and Congress so the policy has some coherency.” Respective roles of FCC and NTIA have drawn closer attention as agencies near release at end of this month of separate final reports on bands that can be used for advanced wireless services such as 3G. Powell emphasized that FCC had limited role as independent agency on Administration decisions on DoD-occupied spectrum, although he said it could be “advocate” for collecting information that’s part of overall decision process. “The Administration has to take a central role” on govt. part of spectrum equation, he said. Citing importance of national defense uses of spectrum, he quipped: “As the son of a 4-star, I respect authority in that regard.”

Referring to industry projections for higher data throughput rates on wireless devices, Yahoo’s Yang said expected dramatic upward curve had taken longer than forecast. “That hockey stick has been 2 years out, 3 years out and that chart has been like that for a few years,” he said, referring to slide in industry forecasts for faster Internet access speeds. He also dismissed notion that wireless operator or site such as Yahoo could “own” customer. “The truth is, none of us own the customer,” Yang said. Idea of building wireless Internet experience that’s solely operator-based “is going to be increasingly challenging,” he said.

First step is achieving partnerships for wireless Internet between carriers and companies such as Yahoo, Yang said, but next evolution must be to have such linkups earn money through m- commerce or subscriber services. “Those are things for which I think the industry has yet to build the infrastructures or the platforms -- and enough cooperation, quite frankly -- to enable,” he said, saying areas such as standards development should help take care of that. Rather than maximizing customer minute usage, “the thought should be how to earn the customers together for longer,” Yang said. Despite challenges, he said, “fundamentally the wireless Internet is a higher value proposition than the wired Internet because of mobility.”

Intel’s Barrett took issue with industry distinctions between wireless and wireline Internet. “There is one Internet. No one is going to redo it,” he said. By drawing lines, “you really kind of have it wrong. It’s more valuable to all of us if there are multiple points of access.” Key to making mobile Web access successful is scalable devices, he said, and same Internet user experience isn’t available on phone with small screens. But “you can get the essence of the content” if applications are tailored to different devices,” he said. Barrett pointed to extent to which customers were hungry for higher data rate speeds, saying narrowband wireless devices at lower speeds still could complement PCs with faster Web access. He said he had been hearing for years about faster wireless bandwidth “and it hasn’t really happened.” Barrett said: “I hope 3 years from now when we convene we are talking about high-bandwidth access and not the slow stuff we have today.”

Wheeler and VoiceStream Chmn.-CEO John Stanton, who also is CTIA chmn., reiterated group’s calls that FCC should lift wireless spectrum cap and make more spectrum available in general so that industry could stay competitive. “We have a government policy that taxes all phone users, including wireless phone users, in order to subsidize the wired network,” Stanton said. He said some vendors were having problems at convention in conducting demonstrations of their wares “because of limitations on spectrum. We have to get more spectrum.”