By Anthony Shadid, Globe Staff, 2/10/2001
The federal government may reclaim airwaves it awarded more than 30 years ago to the Catholic Archdiocese of Boston and thousands of other groups nationwide to accommodate the explosive growth of telecommunications companies seeking to offer customers an array of wireless and Internet services.
At stake may be Boston Catholic Television's 24-hour cable channel broadcasts to 1.5 million households, as well as plans by the archdiocese to deliver televised lessons on demand to 4,000 classrooms and connect students in downtown Boston with schools in Brookline through two-way video.
Across the country, many groups have used bandwidth the Federal Communications Commission awarded them in the 1960s for similar educational uses. The FCC may decide as early as this summer whether to reallocate the bandwidth, and the prospect of losing coveted airwaves is raising concern among many educators.
''We're the small guys on the block, and now they want to push us off the block,'' said Jay Fadden, who manages a staff of 20 at Boston Catholic Television in Newton.
The broadband battle pits the church and other educators against big communications interests seeking to capitalize on next-generation high technology. The frequencies used by the educators for the past generation may be sacrificed to enable a federal auction of the next wave of wireless communications. With too little money and too little clout, some educators fear the airwaves will be taken out of their hands.
The federal government's challenge is to find spectrum, or space in the nation's airwaves, to accommodate what is loosely called third-generation technology. That's the next wave of wireless communication that can deliver high-speed Internet access over handheld devices and make it possible to call up a map in your car, watch video on a mobile phone, or browse the Web without wires.
The problem is that this is a finite space, and demand for it exceeds supply. Lobbying for more space, and willing to pay top dollar in an FCC auction so they can offer customers these new services, are such powerhouses as AT&T Corp., Verizon Communications, BellSouth Corp., and SBC Communications.
''Spectrum is the concrete of the new information highway,'' said Travis Larson, spokesman for the Cellular Telecommunications and Internet Association in Washington, which represents the major manufacturers and providers of the wireless industry. ''You cannot have wireless technology without spectrum.''
Before leaving office, President Clinton ordered federal agencies to find the means to make the new technology possible. Clinton set a deadline of July to come up with the spectrum, with new licenses scheduled to be awarded through an auction in 2002. The federal government stands to make billions.
Clinton called the government's effort necessary to help ensure economic growth, the creation of high-tech jobs, and the ability to roll out new Internet and telecommunications services.
The problem, though, is that much of the airwaves recommended for a network that can span the globe are already occupied.
A big chunk is taken by the Defense Department, some of it used to communicate with about 100 military satellites, links viewed as essential to national security. The other slice is taken by Boston Catholic Television and its diverse education colleagues - groups ranging from the sprawling University of California system to a statewide network in Mississippi to schools in Detroit and long-established Catholic networks in New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Chicago.
The question for the government: Who gives up what? More specifically, will the education spectrum be shared, taken over, or left alone?
''It's a battle of very powerful forces,'' said US Representative Edward J. Markey, a Malden Democrat and a longtime shaper of telecommunications policy. ''Congress has to ensure that our spectrum policy is balanced to reflect the legitimate but competing demands of national security, high-technology innovation, and education.''
A compromise is possible, Markey added, and ''we'll ultimately end up with all of the parties sitting in a room.''
Such amicability, so far, is nowhere to be found in a debate that might end up a fight between guns and butter.
The Defense Department uses some of its spectrum for Arctic radars that serve air defense, a radio system for the Army Corps of Engineers, and command-and-control radio networks for the Army and Air Force, said John Pike, a defense analyst in Washington.
That equipment could be moved to a different frequency. But such a process, while doable, might take several years and cost several hundred million dollars.
The more formidable obstacle - and one with which the military would be loath to tamper - is the Air Force's Space Ground Link Subsystem, the network through which the military talks to its fleet of satellites. As for moving those, Pike said, ''just don't even think about it.''
Another option is the education bands.
At Boston Catholic Television, the 24-hour cable channel broadcasts to 1.5 million households, a half-dozen hospitals, and a similar number of retirement communities. Add to that five education channels operated from a dimly lit control room filled with rows of video screens, computer monitors, output servers, keyboards, satellite downlinks, and millions of dollars in other equipment.
''It's all about bandwidth,'' said chief engineer Mark Quella.
With that bandwidth, the network can provide two-way video that will create a link among the community's schools.
If they're forced to move to a different band?
''It would probably be the death of a lot of what we do here,'' Quella said.
Anthony Shadid can be reached by e-mail at ashadid@globe.com.
This story ran on page A01 of the Boston Globe on 2/10/2001.
© Copyright 2001 Globe Newspaper Company.
