Artech House - Voice.over.802.11.pdf - VirtuaLitera

Conclusion: Vo802.11 Is the Future of Voice Communications 239Public Interest—The ProblemThe fourth and final element of traditional spectrum policy is the “public interest”standard. The phrase (or something similar), “public interest, convenienceor necessity” was a part of the Radio Act of 1927 and likely came from other“utility” regulation statutes. The standard was largely a response to the interferenceand scarcity concerns that were created in the absence of such a discretionarystandard in the 1912 act. The “public interest, convenience and necessity”became a standard by which to judge between competing applicants for a scarceresource—and a tool for ensuring interference did not occur. The public interestunder the command and control model often decided which companies or governmententities would have access to the spectrum resource. At that time, spectrumwas not largely a consumer resource—but rather was accessed by arelatively select few. However, Congress wisely did not create a static publicinterest standard for spectrum allocation and management.Serving the Public Interest in Spectrum Policy—The SolutionThe FCC should develop policies that avoid interference rules that are barriersto entry, that assume a particular proponent’s business model or technology,and that take the place of marketplace or technical solutions. Such a policy mustembody what we have seen benefit the public in every other area of consumergoods and services—choice through competition, and limited, but necessary,government intervention into the marketplace to protect such interests as accessto people with disabilities, public health, safety, and welfare [1].Current State of the IndustryVo802.11 is achieving a surprising degree of adoption in enterprise markets.The entry into this market by data networking and telecommunications giantssuch as Cisco, Avaya, and Motorola offers powerful validation of this technology.The reality for Vo802.11 is that it is, at the time of this writing, an enterpriseapplication. According to a recent Cahners’ In-Stat report, additionaldemand from verticals such as education, health care, retail, and logistics willhelp the overall voice-over-wireless LAN market expand to more than 80,000handset shipments in 2002, a significant jump from the 20,000 shipments in2001. Furthermore, Instat/MDR reports that annual shipments of Vo802.11xhandsets are expected to pass half a million units by 2006 [3].Just like PCs, Web access, and e-mail, Vo802.11 will grow out of theenterprise market and into the residential market. Innovative service providerscan overcome a number of shortcomings in the legacy PSTN infrastructure todeliver Vo802.11 in addition to wireless broadband Internet services. In fact,the most likely market driver for Vo802.11 in residential markets is wirelessbroadband Internet in markets not served by DSL or cable modem. WISPs canadd voice as a revenue stream in addition to their broadband Internet offering.