A
A and B PCS Blocks: The first two PCS licenses that were auctioned by the FCC in March 1995. Each contains 30 MHz of spectrum in the 1900 MHz band and is based on MTA geographic partitions.
Adjacent Channel Interference: Signal impairment to one frequency due to presence of another signal on a nearby frequency.
Advanced Mobile Phone Service (AMPS): An analog cellular radio standard that serves as the foundation for the U.S. cellular industry. AMPS represents the first generation of wireless networks.
Assignment of Authorization: A transaction whereby a license is acquired from an existing licensee (the assignor) by another entity (the assignee). In most cases, the parties must file an application and obtain Commission consent to the assignment before it can take place. An assignment can be either full or partial. A full assignment involves acquisition of the entire license and licensed facilities. A partial assignment involves acquisition by the assignee of a portion of the facilities, geographic area, or spectrum covered by the license, while the assignor retains the remaining portion. In geographically licensed services, partitioning and disaggregation are types of partial assignment.
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Band Plan: A band plan is a defined group of frequency ranges and channels defined by the FCC. Some band plans allow their owners to subdivide license into smaller blocks as they see fit, provided they do not encroach or interfere with their neighboring channel blocks.
Basic Trading Area (BTA): A geographic region defined by a group of counties that surround a city, which is the area's basic trading center. The boundaries of each BTA were formulated by Rand McNally & Co. and are used by the FCC determine service areas for PCS wireless licenses. The entire US and some of its territories is divided into 493 non-overlapping BTAs.
Broadband PCS: Personal communications services created in the A- through F-Block auctions and used for voice and data. Broadband PCS is allocated 140 MHz of spectrum with 20 MHz currently unassigned. Frequency blocks A, B, and C were each assigned 30 MHz of spectrum, while frequency blocks D, E, and F were each assigned 10 MHz of spectrum.
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C Block: The third PCS license that was auctioned by the FCC in May 1996. Each contains 30 MHz of spectrum in the 1900 MHz band and is based on BTA geographic partitions. The licenses were reserved for small businesses and entrepreneurs.
Call Sign: Rules requiring wireless licensees to construct facilities and commence service within a specified time after the license grant date (the construction period). If the licensee fails to construct and commence service within the construction period, and does not receive an extension of time, the license automatically terminates. "Commencement of service" refers to commencing actual operation of the facility. In the case of common carriers, service must be provided to at least two unaffiliated subscribers to meet this requirement.
Construction Requirements: Each license is identified by a unique combination of letters and numbers that identify an FCC license or lease. All Licenses issued in the United States begin with the letter K or W while all leases begin with L.
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D and E PCS Blocks: The fourth and fifth PCS licenses that were auctioned by the FCC in January 1997. Each contains MHz of spectrum in the 1900 MHz band and is based on BTA geographical partitions. The licenses were reserved for smaller businesses and entrepreneurs.
Digital: A method of encoding information using a binary code of 0s and 1s from electrical pulses. Because digital signals are made up only of binary streams, less information is needed to transmit a message. Digital encoding therefore increases the capacity of a given radio frequency. Furthermore, only digitized information can be transported through a noisy channel without degradation. Digital technology reproduces sound exactly, and can even filter out background and electronic "noise." Even if corruption occurs, as long as the one zero patterns are recognizable, the original information content can be perfectly replicated at the receiving end. Most new wireless phones and networks use digital technology.
Disaggregation: When a spectrum holder divides up a spectrum license by frequency or channels. For example, a 10 MHz license could be disaggregated into two 5 MHz parts or ten 1 MHz parts or any other combination totaling up to, but not exceeding the entire licensed amount. Any part can be offered on a shared basis to multiple end users.
Downlink: The portion of a telecommunications path from a satellite to the ground also referred to as the reverse link.
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Equivalent Isotropically Radiated Power (EIRP): The power radiated by a radio antenna calculated as the power output of the intentional radiator multiplied by the gain of the antenna (due to its shape).
Expiration Date: The date after which an FCC - granted license ceases to be valid. For example, a license with a 12/1/98 expiration is no longer valid at 12:00am 12/2/98. In most cases, wireless licenses have a 10-year term, and the expiration date is the 10-year anniversary date of the original license grant date.
Extensible Authentication Protocol (EAP): A general security protocol for networking access that also supports multiple authentication methods. EAP ensures mutual authentication between a wireless client and a server that resides at the network operations center.
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FRN: The FCC Registration Number (FRN) is a 10-digit number that is assigned by the Commission Registration System (CORES) to an entity doing business with the FCC. You may register for a FREE FRN here.
Frequency Band: The range of frequencies between any lower and upper frequency. Not all frequencies have the same characteristics. For example, higher frequencies have a higher space loss and tend to be absorbed into the earth more easily than lower frequencies, making higher frequencies less efficient for long distances versus lower frequencies. Higher frequencies may be reused far more easily due to their smaller coverage footprint but are far more costly than lower frequencies to build wide area coverage. For most licenses, the FCC has a rule regarding the frequency range each license may occupy, commonly referred to as a channel. One channel usually encompasses a specific range of frequencies in a set order (i.e. TV Channel 4 is 78 to 84 MHz). Click here to view the U.S. Frequency Allocation chart.
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Gigahertz (GHz): A unit of frequency equal to 1,000,000,000 cycles per second.
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Hertz (Hz): A unit of measurement of one cycle per second when one radio wave passes one point in one second of time. Named in honor of Heinrich Hertz, the physicist who developed the theory of radio waves.
HSDPA (high-speed downlink packet access): It is an upgraded form of UMTS in that it allows for faster download speeds.
HSPA (high-speed packet access): Commonly used to refer to UMTS based 3G networks that support both HSDPA and HSUPA data for improved download and upload speeds.
HSUPA (high-speed uplink packet access): An upgrade to UMTS that allows for uplink connections as fast as 5.76Mbps.
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Interference: Radios in close proximity to other radios may interfere, even if they are not on the same frequency. Some licenses are issued on a Secondary basis, meaning they are permitted to use a frequency only when its Primary license holder is idle. In addition, some licenses auctioned by the FCC were occupied by incumbent license holders.
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Kilohertz (kHz): A unit of frequency equal to 1,000 cycles per second.
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Local Multipoint Distribution Service (LMDS): Located in the 28 GHz and 31 GHz bands, LMDS is a broadband radio service designed to provide two-way transmission of voice, high-speed data and video (wireless cable TV).
Location Services (LCS): A generic term for services and related applications that are based on the geographic location of a mobile device, and are channeled primarily through wireless communication networks.
LTE (Long Term Evolution): The successor to the current generation of UMTS (Universal Mobile Telecommunications System) 3G technology, which is based upon WCDMA (Wideband CDMA), HSDPA (high-speed downlink packet access), HSUPA (high-speed uplink packet access), and HSPA (high-speed packet access). LTE is not a replacement for UMTS, but rather an update to the UMTS technology that will enable it to provide significantly faster data rates for both uploading and downloading.
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Major Trading Area (MTA): Usually composed of several contiguous basic trading areas. A service area designed by Rand McNally and adopted by the FCC. There are 51 MTAs in the United States.
Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA): One of 306 geographic regions, primarily urban areas, in the United States that are used as license areas in the cellular frequency band. Originally, two wireless operators were licensed in each MSA.
MHz (megahertz): One million hertz, or cycles per second and often used to measure radio frequencies.
Microwaves: A subset of radio waves that have frequencies ranging from around 300 million waves per second (300 MHz) to three billion waves per second (3 GHz).
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Narrowband Advanced Mobile Phone System (NAMPS): Combines cellular voice processing with digital signaling, increasing the capacity of AMPS systems and adding functionality.
Narrowband PCS: The next generation of paging networks, including two-way, acknowledgment and "wireless answering machine" paging.
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Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1993 (OBRA 93): The first legislation authorizing the FCC to auction spectrum.
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Partitioning: The FCC allows licensees to partition licenses, or sub-divide the coverage footprint into smaller areas. These partitions allow licensees to section unused areas for lease or sale to other users while keeping the remaining coverage areas intact. Partitioning can be any size or shape, allowing the licensee to use counties or merely a set of latitude/longitude coordinates that define a boundary area.
Price per MHz POP ($/MHz-POP): The wireless industry commonly uses a dollar per megahertz per person covered, or $/MHz-POP metric to value spectrum. This method may place a high value on densely populated areas, which for consumer-based wireless telephone carriers may correlate well with their business model. However, an electric utility may want to wirelessly monitor many transmission lines with little to no population around them. These transmission lines may contribute valuable service to the utility and the immediate response to an outage may translate to substantial savings or revenue. However, a $/MHz-POP valuation methodology would not have demonstrated a meaningful return on investment for the utility.
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Qualcomm: A technology company based in San Diego, California. It is the developer and creator of CDMA technology.
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Radio Frequency (RF): The spectrum of electromagnetic energy between audio and light: 500 KHz to 300 GHz.
Radio Service Code: Each wireless service licensed within The Universal Licensing System (ULS) is part of a group of services under FCC rules denoted by a two-digit alpha-numeric code. A list of radio service codes can be found there.
Radio Waves: Electromagnetic energy with frequencies in the 3000 hertz (3 kHz) to 300 billion Hertz (300 GHz) portion of the electromagnetic spectrum.
Regulations: Many licenses have specific usage requirements, such as transmit power limits, antenna height limits, or permissible use requirements. The FCC Rules are located in Title 47 of the Code of Federal Regulations maintained by the Office of Engineering and Technology (OET).
Repeater: A device that receives a radio signal, amplifies it, and retransmits it in a new direction. Used in wireless networks to extend the range of base station signals, repeaters expand coverage more economically than building additional base stations. Repeaters typically are used for buildings, tunnels or difficult terrain.
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S-Band: The frequency spectrum near 2 GHz used for land based microwave and some mobile satellite communications.
Short Message Service (SMS): The transmission of short alphanumeric text-messages to and from a mobile phone, fax machine and/or IP address. Messages must be no longer than 160 alphanumeric characters and contain no images or graphics. Once a message is sent, it is received by a Short Message Service Center (SMSC), which must then get it to the appropriate mobile device.
Special Temporary Authority (STA): An authorization that allows the applicant to operate radio facilities for a short period (renewable, but limited to180 days) without a full license. STAs are only granted under unusual circumstances, e.g., where there is an emergency need for service before a license application can be granted, or where a STA is needed to prevent operations from being interrupted due to circumstances beyond the applicant's control.
Spectrum: The range of electromagnetic radio frequencies used in the transmission of sound, data and television.
Spectrum Allocation: Federal government assignment of a range of frequencies for a category of use or uses. For example, the FCC allocated the 1900 MHz band for personal communications services. Allocation, accomplished in FCC proceedings, tracks new technology development; however, the FCC can shift existing allocations to respond to changes in spectrum demand.
Spectrum Cap: A limit to the allocated spectrum designated for a specific service.
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Telematics: The integration of wireless communications, vehicle monitoring systems and location devices.
Time slicing: The license can be offered on a time of day basis. This allows several options including the ability to offer access based on time-of-day, and/or for a specific period of time (lease term). For example a single license could be leased to one user from 8:00am to 5:00pm, another from 5:00pm to 3:00am and to a third from 3:00am to 8:00am.
Total Bandwidth ("Megahertz"): License bandwidth is measured by subtracting the upper and lower frequency boundaries measured in megahertz. For example, a lower frequency of1450 MHz and upper frequency of 1480 MHz would yield a bandwidth 30 MHz. Many licenses are issued as frequency pairs, one dedicated for mobile units and the other for base stations. Common industry practice is to include mobile and base station frequencies when calculating total bandwidth.
Transceiver: Equipment to handle the broadcast and reception of radio signals with network or subscriber equipment.
Transfer of Control: A transaction in which control of the entity that holds a license passes from one entity (the transferor) to another (the transferee). In most cases, the parties must file an application and obtain Commission consent to the transfer before it can take place.
Trunking: Spectrum-efficient technology that establishes a queue to handle demand for voice or data channels.
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UMTS (Universal Mobile Telecommunications System): A 3G networking standard used throughout much of the world as an upgrade to existing GSM (Global System for Mobile Communications) mobile networks.
Uplink: The portion of a telecommunications path from the ground to the satellite also referred to as the forward link.
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Visitor Location Register (VLR): A network database that holds information about roaming wireless customers.
VOIP (Voice Over IP): A system for transmitting voice over a packet-based data network.
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Waiver: A request that the FCC allow an exception to a specified rule in the case of a particular applicant or licensee based on unusual and compelling circumstances.
Wideband CDMA (WCDMA): A 3G mobile services platform, based on modern, layered network-protocol structure, similar to the protocol structure used in GSM networks.
Wireless Communications Services (WCS): The variety of services available using frequencies in the 2.3 GHz band for general fixed wireless use.
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