Users Now Create Their Own Access

In the latest sign that the distinction between public and private networks has blurred, the Federal Communications Commission now has decided private use of consumer signal boosters requires service provider approval for operation.

Signal boosters are used indoors, typically, to boost indoor mobile phone signal strength. Sometimes they are used in cars for this purpose, as well.

But the FCC now has decided that the signal boosters can interfere with wireless networks and cause interference to a range of calls, including emergency and 911 calls. So the FCC now has adopted new rules stipulating that use of such devices is contingent on non-interference to licensed mobile service provider signals.

Under the FCC’s new rules, users will need to register their booster with the customer’s wireless provider. Unless the mobile service provider agrees, the booster cannot be used.

Though aimed at preventing signal interference, the new rule illustrates the changing nature of access. Increasingly, users are weaving together a mix of access networks and techniques to create their own services, combining public and private access methods.

Wi-Fi networks are the best example, but the signal booster issue also is part of the same trend. What that might mean, or should mean, for other efforts, such as municipal broadband , will be hotly debated.

But there is no doubt that, in a genuine sense, end users now stitch together their own access networks and services, blurring and blending the lines between public and private. It is likely to get murkier over time, not clearer, what the precise mix of methods might wind up being. 

Widespread use of Wi-Fi is a prominent example. But potentially new allocations of spectrum for use on a non-licensed basis could be a big factor as well. New proposals for 5 GHz Wi-Fi  provide one example.

For a decade and a half, some observers have argued that Wi-Fi networks could emerge as alternatives or replacements for the mobile network. The speculation seemed to peak in 2002 and 2003, when there was lots of speculation about potential community or metro Wi-Fi networks. These days, Wi-Fi generally is seen as a complement to the mobile network.

Some might argue that the mobile network now is secondary, in some cases, to Wi-Fi networks.

Olivier Baujard, Deutsche Telekom's chief technology officer, says that in the Netherlands, “mobile” phones actually are used more as untethered devices. where 45 percent of traffic is from home, 45 percent is from work, and only 10 percent is while "walking, driving a car, taking a bus, or things like that." In other words, the mobile network is the access mechanism only about 10 percent of the time.

The ability to substitute Wi-Fi for mobile connections is less robust in areas of lower density, though. Buit Wi-Fi covers most of the places where people are, most of the time. Some 80 percent of the time, people connect to the mobile Internet from their home, office, or other indoor location—all areas that are addressable by Wi-Fi. Cisco says.

The other angle is that most of the apps people use are not specifically tied to “mobile,” on the go use cases. According to Cisco, about 66 percent of all smart phone application use involves email, web browsing, gaming, productivity tools or video calls that do not intrinsically involve a “mobile” use case.   

In addition, 80 percent of people's data traffic comes from just three cell phone towers--one near home, one near work, and one someplace in between, the Deutsche Telekom executive said.