A Conference Hosted by the Information Economy Project

Friday, April 4, 2008, Arlington, Virginia

Unlicensed wireless devices, from Wi-Fi routers to baby monitors to cordless phones, are in common use today. But the technologies they deploy were largely illegal until significant reforms were enacted in the mid-1980s. Starting in the United States, regulators permitted certain types of radios to access frequencies on a non-exclusive basis. These policy measures unleashing unlicensed have remained largely in the shadows.

This conference aims to bring new historical perspective to the emergence of the license-exempt rules and the applications that followed. It will explore the interplay between industry initiatives and government responses. It will showcase a series of academic research papers examining how unlicensed spectrum policies developed and how they helped shaped market responses.

The Information Economy Project is bringing together speakers deeply involved in crafting key policy changes, including spectrum allocations and technology standards. Many of the individuals have also been at the forefront of supplying applications via unlicensed spectrum. This conference should prove informative to people interested in spectrum policy generally, or unlicensed wireless in particular. It may also interest students of regulation, technological innovation, communications, or law and economics.

Conference Agenda:

8:15 a.m. Informal Breakfast and Welcome

• Thomas Hazlett, George Mason University School of Law

8:30 a.m. Morning Keynote

• Michael J. Marcus – Wi-Fi and Bluetooth – The Path from Carter and Reagan-Era Faith in Deregulation to Widespread Products Impacting Our World
• Mark Fowler – Federal Communications Commission Chairman, May 1981 – April 1987, Mark Fowler’s Introduction of Mike Marcus, Read by Chuck Jackson

9:15 a.m. Panel 1: Policy Development

• Kenneth R. Carter – Unlicensed to Kill: a Brief History of the FCC Part 15 Rules
• Stephen J. Lukasik – Unleashing Innovation: Making the FCC User-Friendly
• Henry Goldberg – Grazing on the Commons: The Emergence of Part 15
• Chuck Jackson – Moderator

10:30 a.m. Break

10:45 a.m. Panel 2: Market Development

• Kevin Negus, Al Petrick – History of Wireless Local Area Networks (WLANs) in the Unlicensed Bands
• Ing Victor Hayes, Dr. Ir. Wolter Lemstra – Unlicensed: The Case of Wi-Fi
• Tim Pozar – Broadband Access in Unlicensed Bands for Fun & Profit
• Anthony Townsend – Moderator

12:15 p.m. Luncheon Keynote

• Dewayne Hendricks – What Went Wrong with U-PCS

1:30 p.m. Concluding Remarks by Thomas Hazlett

1:45 p.m. Adjourn

Conference on .mp3:

GenesisUnlicensedWirelessPolicy.mp3 [4:58:49 120 MB]

The Information Economy Project is proud to present articles that have been published in INFO, Special Issue August 2009, INFO Volume 11, Issue 5 from the Genesis of Unlicensed Wireless Policy: How Spread Spectrum Devices Won Access to License-Exempt Bandwidth Conference held on April 4, 2008:

Unlicensed Wireless Policy Conference: Guest Editorial, by Charles L. Jackson, 5 INFO (August 2009)  Unlicensed wireless has become an industry, with hundreds of millions of radios in use today. These devices range from short-range wireless computer keyboards to microwave links with ranges of several miles. Among the most well known are wireless local area networks (WLANs) often referred to as WiFi or 802.11.  This special issue of info presents a collection of papers presented at a George Mason University Law School Conference on “The evolution of unlicensed wireless policy: how spread spectrum devices won access to license-exempt bandwidth” on 4 April 2008. The conference, organized by GMU Law School’s Information Economy Project, reviewed the development of unlicensed wireless policy in the US with the goal of assisting scholars in understanding how current unlicensed policies came into being. It looked at the interplay between regulation and innovation and examined policy initiatives from industry and from inside the government. It also reviewed technological and market responses to changes in regulation.

Unlicensed to Kill: A Brief History of the FCC Part 15 Rules, by Kenneth R. Carter, 5 INFO 8-18 (August 2009)  The Information Economy Project congratulates Kenneth R. Carter, whose paper from the April 2008 IEP Conference, Unleashing Unlicensed, has been awarded the Best Paper of 2009 by the multi-disciplinary journal, info.  Mr. Carter’s paper, “Unlicensed to Kill: A Brief History of the Part 15 Rules,” was published in Volume 11, No. 5 of info, along with the other outstanding articles produced by the scholars and experts who contributed to our highly successful conference at George Mason University, organized by Dr. Charles Jackson.  One would think that a paper on history of unlicensed spectrum ought to be a very short. For one, with except for a very minor section of the Federal Communications Commission’s Part 15 rules, there is no such thing as “unlicensed spectrum”. Rather, the FCC’s Part 15 rules permit radio operation on a sufferance basis in broad swaths of the spectrum which is not allocated specifically to unlicensed use. Second, when compared to other communications policies, the history of the unlicensed rules is rather brief. In the five decades between the establishment of the rules in 1938 and their major revision in 1989, the FCC issued only a handful of proceeding on the issue. The commission’s actions on the subject begin to accelerate apace starting in the early 1990s.  While the unlicensed rules may lack a glorious and romantic past, licensed operation holds great interest for spectrum policy wonks as well as rich issues for the spectrum policy debate. With increasing intensity over the last decade, proponents and opponents in this debate have held forth unlicensed operation as being either pariah or paradigm. Having participated in this debate numerous conferences and events, it seems to me that following syllogism describes the view of spectrum policy researchers toward unlicensed operation. Namely, that unlicensed operation is for economists akin to what the bumblebee is for aeronautical engineers. As the legend goes, according to aerodynamic theory, the length of the bumble bee’s wings is too short for its body and thus, it is not be able to fly. And, yet it does.

Mark Fowler’s Introduction of Mike Marcus, by Mark S. Fowler (April 2008). Good morning, Thank you for opportunity to introduce Mike Marcus to this audience today. During my tenure as chairman, we faced a number of difficult and contentious issues including reforming telephone rates, facilitating telecommunications competition, and extending First Amendment protection to all media. The electronic press, the press that uses air and electrons, must be as free as the press that uses paper and ink. There are no policy reasons to regulate the content of the electronic media, only excuses.

Wi-Fi and Bluetooth: The Path from Carter and Reagan-era Faith in Deregulation to Widespread Products Impacting Our World, by Michael J. Marcus, 5 INFO 19-35 (August 2009)  On May 9, 1985 the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), in a meeting that attracted little attention outside the few companies that lobby the agency, adopted a set of rules dealing with the esoteric topic of spread spectrum modulation. But like a seed planted in the ground, these rules resulted in the germination of new classes of products that ultimately had both significant economic impact as well as impact on the daily lives of many people. This decision did not start as an attempt to bring specific products to market, but as part of a program to remove anachronistic technical regulations and allow a free market in innovative technology, subject only to responsible interference limits.

History of Wireless Local Area Networks (WLANs) in the Unlicensed Bands, by Kevin Negus & Al Petrick, 5 INFO 35-56 (August 2009) The wireless local area network (WLAN) is today a ubiquitous device often taken for granted as a default interface for networked devices by users and manufacturers alike. But not very long ago, it was most definitely not so. Rewind the clock ten years back to 1998 and not only are there bitter technical and business consortia differences on WLAN approaches, but there is extreme skepticism and variation in opinion as to how, or even if, WLANs can ever become a mainstream network interface. The WLAN of that day appeared to lack both the throughput of the wired local area network (such as 10/100 Ethernet LAN) and the coverage of the cellular network (which was supposed to be “imminently” upgrading to Mb/s data performance). The WLAN to that point had largely evolved as a slow and unreliable emulation of the wired LAN, only without the wire. And as such the products and standards largely envisioned the end application for WLAN as a replacement for wired LAN in enterprise or campus environments where mobile users would roam with their networked personal computers (PCs).

License-Exempt: The Emergence of Wi-Fi, by Ing Victor Hayes & Ir. Wolter Lemstra, 5 INFO 57-71 (August 2009)  In 1985, this development had been triggered by the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC)[1] when it opened the 915 MHz, the 2.4 and 5.8 GHz bands designated for industrial, scientific and medical (ISM) applications for the use by radio systems, under the condition that spread spectrum techniques would be used (FCC, 1985). Interestingly, the 1980 MITRE report that investigated the potential benefits, costs, and risks of spread spectrum communications on behalf of the FCC did not identify a strong requirement or need from the industry to assign radio frequency (RF) spectrum for spread spectrum based applications. The report concludes that spread spectrum technology is inherently more complex and thus more costly (Mitre Corp., 1980).

Grazing on the Commons: The Emergence of Part 15, by Henry Goldberg, 5 INFO 72-75 (August 2009) What follows is a somewhat impressionistic, highly biased[1] account of how unlicensed radio services moved from being a by-product of the ISM bands to a deliberate spectrum allocation, with clearly defined goals and objectives that could be achieved only by not subjecting the spectrum to licensing or auctions. Like sin itself, the deliberate un-licensing of spectrum began with an Apple. In early 1991, Apple Computer was developing the Newton as the first PDA (Apple invented the term) and was pioneering in the laptop segment of the computer market. Apple believed that wireless connectivity was essential to the success of both products[2].  Accordingly, Apple petitioned the FCC to allocate 40 MHz of spectrum – 1,850-1,890 MHz – out of the 1,850-1,990 MHz band being earmarked for new technologies, particularly PCS. Apple called its proposed new radio service Data-PCS and proposed that it would be devoted exclusively to local area, high speed data communications to support collaborative computing and spontaneous networking among laptops and PDAs. Data-PCS would, in the words of the petition…

Unleashing Innovation: Making the FCC User-Friendly, by Stephen J. Lukasik, 5 INFO 76-85 (August 2009)  There is a large literature on the issue of regulation and technological innovation from the varied perspectives of history, politics, economics, law, finance, and engineering. To attempt to add something meaningful to this rich body of writings is challenging. My only qualification is that of a participant for a short but critical period.  When I found myself, on May 1, 1979, the Chief Scientist of the Federal Communications Commission, twenty-three years after receiving my doctorate from MIT, my training said to decide what the most important problems were that needed fixing and to proceed by whatever promising means suggested themselves to fix them. My technical background was eclectic, the result of broad interests and perhaps a bit of impatience, but quite devoid of experience with the theory or practice of regulation. To understand what happened next on the technology and communication policy side of the FCC, it may be useful to look further into my improbable presence.

Has “Unlicensed” in Part 15 Worked? A Case Study, by Tim Pozar, 5 INFO 86-91 (August 2009)  The Federal Communications Commission established the provisions for unlicensed operations of intentional radiators or transmitters for commutations in what was called the industrial scientific and medical bands. This was a significant change in mindset for the FCC and this case study is meant to show an example of how unlicensed devices have contributed to the community “good”.  The internet became a major economic entity and an essential tool for commerce in the mid to late 1990s. With that, the digital divide was identified as a significant issue by 1996[1]. Typically the digital divide has been the result of cost of the equipment to use the internet, such as computers, as well as the cost or lack of access in connecting to the Internet. Many efforts by local community groups and governments have been made to attack the issue but one problem that they all encountered was addressing the “last mile” to connect the disenfranchised.

Speaker Biographies:

Dr. Charles L. Jackson is an electrical engineer and consultant who has worked extensively in telecommunications and wireless. He is an adjunct professor at George Washington University. Dr. Jackson has consulted on spectrum and telecommunications policy issues for numerous commercial clients and several governments, including New Zealand, Panama, Jamaica, United Kingdom, Germany, Latvia, and the United States. Dr. Jackson received his Ph.D. from MIT.

Michael Marcus retired from the Federal Communications Commission after almost 25 years of service. He is an independent consultant in wireless technology and policy. While at the FCC, he proposed and directed the rulemakings that made Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and Wireless HD possible. He has a Ph.D. in electrical engineering from MIT and is an Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE).

Kenneth R. Carter is a Senior Consultant at wik-Consult GmbH, based in Germany, where he is a member of the firm’s NGN and Internet Economics Department. He is an attorney, a technologist, and a communications business analyst. Mr. Carter was previously Senior Counsel for Business and Economics in the Office of Planning and Policy Analysis at the Federal Communications Commission. Mr. Carter holds an Executive MBA from Columbia Business School, a J.D. from the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law, and a B.A. from Colgate University.

Dr. Stephen J. Lukasik served as the first Chief Scientist of the Federal Communications Commission, from 1979 through 1982. Prior to that, Dr. Lukasik was the Director of the Department of Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, Chief Scientist of the RAND Corporation, and Manager of the Systems Development Division at Xerox.

Mark S. Fowler served as Chairman of the Federal Communications Commission from 1981 to 1987.

Henry Goldberg is the founding partner of Goldberg, Godles, Wiener & Wright, a telecommunications law firm in Washington, D.C. He is a graduate of the Columbia University Law School and served as General Counsel of the Office of Telecommunications Policy in the Executive Office of the President. He has represented a large number of companies in developing use of unlicensed radio frequencies for a variety of technologies.

Anthony Townsend was one of the original founders of NYCwireless, a pioneer in the municipal wireless movement that promotes the use of public-access Wi-Fi in the development of local communities. At the Institute for the Future, a Silicon Valley think tank, Dr. Townsend’s work focuses on mobility and urbanization, demographics, pervasive computing, and the media industry. He directed research sponsored by the National Science Foundation and the Department of Homeland Security at New York University, and received a Fulbright scholarship in 2004 to study the social impacts of broadband in South Korea. Dr. Townsend holds a Ph.D. in urban and regional planning from MIT, a master’s in urban planning from NYU, and a B.A. from Rutgers University.

Kevin Negus received the Ph.D. in Engineering from the University of Waterloo in 1988. For the past 20 years he has developed wireless products and standards at both the chipset and system level primarily at Hewlett-Packard and Proxim. Dr. Negus is currently a Venture Capital partner in Los Altos, Calif., and a consultant on patent litigation. He lives in Hyattville, Wyoming.

Al Petrick is a Wireless Consultant for Jones-Petrick and Associates, in Orlando, Florida. With more than 25 years experience in wireless communications, Mr. Petrick has held senior management positions in business development and systems engineering for leading semiconductor companies in the Wi-Fi market. For the past eight years, he served as Vice-Chairman of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers’s 802.11 standards group — or Wi-Fi — and is co-author of a leading wireless textbook: The IEEE 802.11 Handbook: A Designers Companion. Mr. Petrick received an M.B.A. from Rollins College Winter Park Florida in 1997 and a BSEE from Rochester Institute of Technology in 1980.

Ing. Vic Hayes is a Senior Research Fellow the Delft University of Technology, and is writing a book on the genesis of Wi-Fi. He holds a BSEE and joined NCR in the Netherlands in 1974. He co-established and chaired the IEEE 802.11, Standards Working Group for Wireless Local Area Networks and became known as the “Father of Wi-Fi.” After chairing the WG, he successfully mobilized the computer industry to support the agenda item for 455 MHz of spectrum at co-primary allocation on the agenda of the World Radio Conference 2003. In October 2003, he retired from Agere Systems. For his pioneering work on Wi-Fi, Vic is the recipient of the Innovation Award 2004 of “The Economist,” the Dutch Vosko Trophy, 2 Wi-Fi Alliance Leadership Awards, the IEEE Standards Medallion, the IEEE Leadership Award, the IEEE Hans Karlsson Award and the IEEE Steinmetz Award.

Dr. Ir. Wolter Lemstra is Senior Research Fellow at the Economics Section of Infrastructures at the Faculty Technology, Policy and Management of the Delft University of Technology, the Netherlands. In 2006 he concluded his PhD research project exploring the impact of the Internet/telecom bubble on the evelopment path of the telecommunication industry, thereby leveraging 25 years in the telecom industry with Philips, AT&T and Lucent Technologies, most recently as VP Business Development and Marketing. Wolter is also a Senior Lecturer at the Strategy Academy, Rotterdam, the Netherlands, and a Faculty Member of the Executive Masters program in e-Governance at the Ecole Polytechnique Fédéral de Lausanne in Switzerland.

Tim Pozar is a telecommunications consultant specializing in microwave engineering for government and commercial applications. He was an early entrepreneur and developer in the Internet startup area, co-founding companies including TLGnet, San Francisco’s first ISP, Brightmail, an early anti-spam company, and others. Pozar is active in community wireless networking, and is a co-founder of the Bay Area Wireless User Group. He is also leading the Bay Area Research Wireless Network’s (BARWN) effort to study the scalability and sustainability of deploying wireless high speed Internet access for urban and rural settings to address the digital divide. BARWN is working with the City of San Francisco to deploy backbone and last mile to the City’s housing developments. Pozar has also published a number of papers covering the regulatory issues in the United States and engineering of high speed wireless networks.

Dewayne Hendricks is CEO of Tetherless Access, Inc. (TAI), a Fremont, Calif.-based company which does research, product development and deployment of broadband wired and wireless data devices and services. TAI is the new incarnation of Tetherless Access Ltd. (TAL), where he was its CEO and co-founder. TAL, founded in 1990, was one of the first companies to develop and deploy Part 15 unlicensed wireless metropolitan area data networks which used the TCP/IP protocols. TAL eventually went public in 1996. He is also a member of the Federal Communications Commission Technological Advisory Council.

Thomas W. Hazlett is Professor of Law & Economics and serves as Director of the Information Economy Project at George Mason University School of Law. He is also a Columnist for the New Technology Policy Forum hosted by the Financial Times. Prof. Hazlett previously held faculty appointments at the University of California at Davis, Columbia University, and the Wharton School, and in 1991-92 served as Chief Economist of the Federal Communications Commission. Dr. Hazlett received his Ph.D. in Economics from U.C.L.A.

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