BellSouth announced today the expansion of BellSouth Wireless Broadband Service into two new markets by late October, Albany, Ga. and Paducah, Ky. Additionally, service will be expanded in the New Orleans area to include New Orleans East.

With these expansions, BellSouth will offer the service in 10 Southeastern markets, including four markets recently launched in September: North Charleston, S.C.; Melbourne, Fla.; Greenville, Miss.; and Chattanooga, Tenn.

FCC Chairman Kevin Martin is pushing for an Oct. 12 vote on the proposed AT&T-BellSouth merger without any conditions. But Senators Mike DeWine (R) and Herb Kohl (D) want AT&T/BellSouth to divest their WiMAX spectrum first.

DeWine, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Antitrust Subcommittee and Kohl, the panel’s top Democrat, say a merged AT&T-BellSouth would control substantial spectrum in the 2.3-gigahertz and 2.5-GHz bands. As a result, they say, fewer frequencies would be available for competitors. The fear is that BellSouth would underutilize those WiMAX frequencies in order to forestall competition.

AT&T-BellSouth are also (respectively) 60 percent and 40 percent owners of Cingular Wireless, the largest U.S. cellular carrier. BellSouth has considerable WiMAX spectrum, especially at 2.3 GHz, but also at 2.5 GHz.

“With BellSouth Wireless Broadband Service, we can reach even more of our customers with high-speed Internet access,” said Randy Roberts, vice president, wireless and CPE management - BellSouth. “One of our primary focuses in these latest deployments has been on our rural customers, some whose only opportunity to experience high-speed Internet is with our wireless broadband service.”

BellSouth may be concentrating on rural users for an additional reason — less interference from XM satellite radio repeaters that share the 2.3 GHz band. Satellite radio uses Digital Audio Repeaters (DARS) for both direct satellite transmissions and for local terrestrial “repeaters” which fill in “dead zones”.

The wireless broadband industry lashed out at XM Radio, reports RCR Wireless, after the satellite radio operator admitted that some 221 land-based repeaters were operating above authorized power levels and 19 repeaters were transmitting outside the scope of XM’s Federal Communications Commission permit.

XM’s Oct. 2 filing with the FCC—in which it disclosed the situation—said the company was not aware of any wireless broadband facilities in any of the cities at issue in the matter. The FCC has failed to date to craft permanent rules governing the land-based transmissions of satellite radio operators.

Instead, the agency issues “special temporary authority,” or STA, authorizations to digital satellite radio service providers. The situation worries wireless broadband companies that intend to invest millions of dollars in coming years on WiMAX systems in the 2.3 GHz and 2.5 GHz bands.

Repeaters can have an EIRP well over 2000 watts. Those strong satellite repeaters, adjacent to 2.3 Mobile WiMAX bands, can desensitize the front end of WiMAX radios, reducing their effective range. It may also make interference-rejecting terminals more expensive.

BellSouth says it was the first major telecom provider to commercially launch wireless broadband using pre-WIMAX technology. The company now offers wireless broadband service in Athens, Ga.; Palatka, Fla.; DeLand, Fla.; Melbourne, Fla.; New Orleans, La.; Greenville, Miss.; Chattanooga, Tenn.; and North Charleston, S.C. BellSouth plans to expand the service to additional cities throughout 2006.

The primary home for Mobile WiMax will be the 2.5 GHz band (now called BRS). As of November 2005, over 1,700 BRS Licenses were listed on the FCC’s ULS License Search web site. Maravedis estimated the broadband wireless licensees (below), from the FCC’s ULS License Search web site.

Protected Service Areas (PSA) is an exclusive license service granted comprised of a 35 Mile Radius surrounding the licensed transmitter site. Basic Trading Areas (BTA) is geographic region defined by a group of counties that surround a city as formulated by Rand McNally. There are 493 BTAs in the U.S.

Posted by Sam Churchill on Thursday, October 5th, 2006 at 3:42 am.