I have received several mails from listers this week asking how much license spectrum might cost to lease. While I am not an expert on the matter (I can recommend a variety of good legal counsel though), I did come across a 2005 presentation available online. With a caveat that I do not know this source and that costs have likely been driven up in the past two years, this can provide some guideline. The most salient points are the author's estimate that BRS/EBS spectrum (2.5 GHz) might run .015 to .1 cents per pop/per MHz.
http://www.biacompanies.com/PDF/Valuing_EBS-BRS_Spectrum_2005.pdf Let's use the Rexburg, ID example from the youtube news bit I posted yesterday. If the above numbers are close, then two 6 MHz channels worth of a license that covered a population the size of Rexburg (about 17.2k people) would cost between about $3,100 to $20,600. In actuality, these cover multiple towns so let's just pretend a license covers a 100k population. In such a case that 12 MHz worth of a license in 2005 values would be between $18,000 to $120,000. While the above is little more than a WAG, it might provide some frame of reference. I should also make a related note about an announcement Intel made this week at its Intel Developers Forum (IDF). Intel said it will ship its Echo Peak chip set that supports both Wi-Fi and WiMAX beginning in 2008. So far, the laptop makers Acer, Asus, Lenovo, Panasonic and Toshiba have announced they will use the Echo Peak chipset in notebooks shipping in mid-2008. This is significant because this begins the "zero cost CPE" stage of the WiMAX market whereby the user provides his or her own means of connecting to WiMAX base stations. In other words, you are only building the infrastructure, which is obviously quite different than having to provide and install clients as is necessary in a fixed wireless environment. Of course, base station density gets driven up, but even that is a new world with the advent of femto cells, which would also be self-procured (by the user). A femto cell is essentially an in-home or in-business mini cell that connects to your broadband router. We are all familiar with these in Wi-Fi, but what is new is that these are soon to be produced using license bands and cellular or WiMAX technology. It is very interesting stuff since it reduces the operator need to spend some measure of additional CAPEX to increase coverage, while also moving the traffic from a femto into the broadband connection which could also mean freeing up capacity on the external cells. An interesting side note on femtos that has so far not made it into the debate is that this throws the Net Nuetrality debate on its head because it would mean the guys right now screaming the most against Net Neutrality will actually have their cellular traffic funneling into another carriers' broadband network in many case (e.g., a T-Mobile cellular customer that has a T-Mobile femto cell that the user connects to his Time Warner cable modem). Fun stuff! Patrick Leary AVP, Market Development Alvarion, Inc. o: 650.314.2628 c: 760.580.0080 [EMAIL PROTECTED] Visit Alvarion at WiMAX World Chicago, September 25-27 Booth #409 ************************************************************************************ This footnote confirms that this email message has been scanned by PineApp Mail-SeCure for the presence of malicious code, vandals & computer viruses(84). ************************************************************************************ ************************************************************************************ This footnote confirms that this email message has been scanned by PineApp Mail-SeCure for the presence of malicious code, vandals & computer viruses. ************************************************************************************ -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ** Join us at the WISPA Reception at 6:30 PM on October the 16th 2007 at ISPCON ** ** ISPCON Fall 2007 - October 16-18 - San Jose, CA www.ispcon.com ** ** THE INTERNET INDUSTRY EVENT ** ** FREE Exhibits and Events Pass available until August 31 ** ** Use Customer Code WSEMF7 when you register online at http://www.ispcon.com/register.php ** -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- WISPA Wants You! Join today! http://signup.wispa.org/ -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- WISPA Wireless List: wireless@wispa.org Subscribe/Unsubscribe: http://lists.wispa.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless Archives: http://lists.wispa.org/pipermail/wireless/