Broadband broadside from BCL

By ADAM GIFFORD

Broadcast Communications (BCL) has hit back at Walker Wireless after losing three out of three regional broadband tenders to the Auckland upstart.

The state-owned networking company has applied for a judicial review of the licences Walker Wireless bought at auction to deploy its solution. BCL's move could delay the arrival of Walker's broadband services.

"We have sought a judicial review because we want clarification regarding the validity of the licences issued, as to whether they were validly certified - the extent to which they recognise the prior right of BCL," BCL chief executive Geoff Lawson said.

Walker Wireless chairman Rod Inglis said his company understood its obligations towards owners of adjoining frequencies, and believed BCL's claims of interference would not stand up.

The dispute is around Walker's use of TDD (Time Division Duplexing) technology from United States company IP Wireless in the "1098" band of the radio spectrum. BCL has frequency in the 2GHz band adjacent to Walker Wireless, and uses FDD (Frequency Division Duplexing) technology.

In FDD transmission, a guard band of spectrum is used to separate transmitting and receiving channels. TDD uses only one channel for transmitting and receiving, separating them by different time slots.

First defendant is Walker Wireless, second defendant is Wellington radio engineer Robert Vernall, who certified the licence, and the Ministry of Economic Development is named as third defendant.*

BCL wrote to every radio engineer in the country before Christmas reminding them of their responsibility under the Radiocommunications Act not to certify any spectrum licence that is technically incompatible with services operating under existing licences.

"BCL has registered spectrum licences in both the 1098 and 3.5GHz bands that you must protect from harmful interference before issuing a certificate for a licence in adjacent spectrum," it said.

TDD services "are likely to cause harmful interference to the rights conferred on BCL by BCL licences, particularly when the technology is combined with user terminals that are mobile and have omni-directional antennas.

"If you certify a spectrum licence under which a TDD service is proposed to be operated in a band adjacent to any of BCL's licences, and that licence does not protect BCL's FDD services from harmful interference, you will likely cause loss and damage to BCL [including economic loss] that BCL may recover through legal action," the company said.

Lawson said the ministry was named third defendant because "they would be a party to any decision the judge might determine".

He would not say what evidence BCL had that there would be harmful interference.

A spokesman for Broadcasting Minister Steve Maharey said he and BCL's other shareholding minister, Treasurer Michael Cullen, had been briefed about the case and considered it an operational matter for the company.

So far Walker Wireless has used the IP Wireless equipment in limited trials in Auckland, and is preparing for a trial at Tuatapere in Southland this month.

Lawson said Walker Wireless had been told that deployment of its solution was likely to cause interference.

Inglis said the key market for TDD worldwide involved co-siting with 3G cellular operators.

"People put 5GHz of TDD right in the middle of the FDD bands," he said.

"Our stuff is all based on the UMTS [Universal Mobile Telecommunications System] standard. That is what it is designed to do. That is why we are co-sited on Vodafone towers."

He said BCL seemed to be ignoring the spirit of the Radiocommunications Act, which was supposed to encourage companies to co-operate rather than litigate.

"Everywhere else in the world, companies have been withdrawing from the courts and cooperating.

"I'm sure the Government would want that to happen here as well.

"There is no reason we can't co-exist with BCL."

BCL tendered for the broadband projects in Southland, Wairarapa and Northland in partnership with Telecom, but the consortium's mix of Telecom's copper-based Jetstream services and BCL's Airspan wireless equipment did not excite the regional broadband groups.

BCL and Telecom are now trying to sell their solution to Fonterra's farmer shareholders under the FonterraNet brand.

The facts

* BCL says technology used by Walker Wireless will cause interference on BCL's frequency, limiting its ability to run a wireless broadband service.

* Both companies have aspirations to run a national network, Walker Wireless in conjunction with Vodafone and BCL with Telecom.

* Walker Wireless says BCL's claims of interference will not stand up and that legal action breaches the spirit of the Radiocommunications Act.

* The judicial review could delay roll-out of Walker Wireless' technology in the three regions where it was successful in winning Project Probe tenders - Southland, Wairarapa and Northland.

* Management of the radio frequency spectrum is the responsibility of the Ministry of Economic Development.

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* CORRECTION: In the original version of this story we incorrectly stated that Robert Vernall was first defendant, Walker Wireless was second defendant, and the Ministry of Economic Development was third defendant.