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Cable Technology Feature Article

October 07, 2008

FiberTower Spectrum Awarded License Extensions and Renewals from FCC

By Anuradha Shukla, TMCnet Contributor


Wireless backhaul services provider, FiberTower Corporation has announced that the Federal Communications Commission (FCC (News - Alert)) has awarded either renewals for another 10 years or construction extensions until June 1, 2012 to all of its Area-Wide licenses in the 38.6 to 40.0 GHz spectrum bands.
 
These licenses represent over 1.15 billion spectrum PoPs in total, said the company. Combined with 103 licenses for 24 GHz spectrum, these 566 licenses allow FiberTower’s hybrid microwave/fiber network to extend over virtually the entire continental U.S. covering 284 million people.
 
Kurt Van Wagenen, FiberTower’s president and chief executive officer, expressed his company’s pleasure at the FCC’s action as it enables them to continue leveraging their spectrum, which represents one of their primary assets. With these licenses secured, the company intends to continue building their hybrid backhaul network in support of their customers’ growing capacity demands.
 
According to company officials, all of FiberTower’s Rectangular Service Area (RSA) licenses located in the top 50 markets were deemed to meet with the FCC’s construction standard. These licenses were thus renewed for 10 years along with some licenses in smaller markets that were protected due to spectrum lease or other construction activity.
 
The company added that all of FiberTower’s remaining RSA licenses, totaling 183, and all of FiberTower’s Economic Area (EA) licenses received an extension until June 1, 2012 in order to demonstrate “substantial service” as defined by the FCC.
 
FiberTower is a backhaul and access services provider focused primarily on the wireless carrier market. Earlier this year, the company was named the winner of NXTcomm Eos Award for Excellence in Network Design and Services for Ethernet wireless backhaul. Accedian Networks (News - Alert) reportedly nominated FiberTower as a candidate in the Wireless/Mobile/Network Services category.
 
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Anuradha Shukla is a contributing editor for TMCnet. To read more of Anuradha’s article, please visit her columnist page.

Edited by Michelle Robart