Sam Churchill writes: "Research firm Maravedis has a new study out on the licensed 2.5 GHz Broadband Radio Service (BRS) and the licensed 2.3 GHz Wireless Communications Service (WCS) band. They calculate the number of licenses and coverage in the 2.3 and 2.5 GHz bands. ¶ Those frequencies are critical for the future of mobile WiMax in the United States. Without them it's not going anywhere. ...¶... In 2004, the FCC changed the MDS/ITFS frequency plan. Commercial Broadband (BRS) and Educational (EBS) broadband services are now allocated differently. The television oriented EBS service was moved in the middle of the band to reduce interference with the weaker 2-way data services. ¶ As of November 2005, over 1,700 BRS Licenses and 2,500 EBS Licenses (formerly ITFS) were listed on the FCC's ULS License Search web site. The FCC's Tower Search has additional information. Maravedis estimated the broadband wireless licensees (below), from the FCC's ULS License Search web site. ..."
| Licensee | PSA | BTA | Potential Subs |
| BellSouth Wireless | 36 | 6 | 9,070,577 |
| Clearwire | 59 | 24 | 4,693,347 |
| Nextel/Sprint | 268 | 198 | 157,519,832 |
Link: dailywireless.org. NB: Many public television licensees are also licensees in the EBS (formerly ITFS) spectrum and have spectrum agreements with these companies. "WiMax R Us!" Since WiMax, expecially the mobile flavor, could be a very important delivery pipe for us in the future, we'd be very smart, as these agreements renew in the next several years, to look beyond a purely financial deal with Sprint, et al. --Dennis
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