Windows Phone Thoughts: Phone Scoop: A Visual Guide to AWS (and US Wireless Spectrum in General)

"The U.S. government recently auctioned off a large, important band of radio spectrum called AWS. There's a lot of confusion about the new AWS band these days, so we've created this handy guide to explain all the nitty-gritty details. Although this article focuses primarily on AWS, it's hard to explain AWS without touching on some general radio spectrum topics and the other major cell-phone bands, so we'll cover some of that, too. The AWS auction was conducted by the FCC (Federal Communications Commission,) the arm of the government responsible for (among other things) regulating radio spectrum and the industries that use it. The auction took place August 9 - September 19, 2006."



Ever wonder how the FCC auctions or allocates wireless spectrum, and how it overlaps with Europe's? Or what are phones are actually doing when they're triband or quadband? Or why T-Mobile waited so very long until announcing their 3G network? If so, definitely read this article. It's one of the finest articles I've read on the subject in a very long time. I'd consider it a must-read for any non-RF-engineer who's interested in wireless technology, especially those in the US; Rich Brome does a wonderful job of explaining it all and making it accessible to the average technology enthusiast. :) (And for those of you who want the full-sized image of the above US FCC spectrum allocation diagram, here's the original PDF. Yes, it's mind-blowingly complicated. 8O)