Citizens Band goes Digital

Recently I've been reading alot about the FCC's recent reprovisioning of frequencies currently allocated to the (soon to be) former analog UHF TV band known as the 700mhz band and auctioning them off to giant communications infrastructure providers like Verizon for their own for-profit use.

Whats funny is while the powers that be have grandfathered Analog NTSC/PAL TV transmissions (which was always a one-to-many medium) in favor of utilizing some of the frequencies once occupied (at least in the US) by the upper UHF channels above 60 for a new 700mhz broadband network, there remains yet another block of frequencies that could truly serve to revolutionize citizen to citizen communications world wide that is still languishing in the world of analog-only communications.

And that block of frequencies is what is known in the USA as the "CB Radio" or "Citizens Band" at roughly 27mhz otherwise known as the "10 meter" band in Amateur Radio parlance. Many countries allow citizens to transmit and receive in that portion of the Radio Spectrum 100% license free with no registration of operators or equipment and no permanent fixed allocation of stations to particular frequencies.

With modern developments in the world of Software Defined Radios and the emerging field known as Cognitive Radio, the "Citizens Band" would be ideally suited for a 100% open and license free worldwide Wide Area Network (WAN) communications infrastructure. The use of the "CB" band for personal citizen to citizen communications has existed nearly as long as Television, and today we find the frequencies once allocated to Television being reprovisioned for Wide Area Network use by the FCC allowing companies like Verizon to capitalize on the aforementioned 700mhz band - another company ostensibly part of the preexisting global communications and media conglomerates that seem to squirm at the thouight of ever allowing the citizens of the world free access to *anything*, let alone person to person communications.

Isn't it time the citizens had a Wide Area Network of their own? And what better chunk of frequency spectrum to put it than the one originally designated for that very purpose. With "Low Frequency" Software Defined Radio kits starting to become available in the Amateur Radio Communities for under $100, I think its high time this bandwith be reprovisioned to allow the same phase shift keyed digital communications to occur as is currently practiced in the 2.4 ghz and other open frequency blocks allocated to WIFI.

Think about it: CB Radio transceivers and antennas are already ubiquitous, if also fading into obscurity. If some enterprising young engineer took the time to design a WAN protocol for this frequency band, one with all the benefits of existing Digital Spread Spectrum and Ultra Wide Band techniques for negotiating channel usage as well as emerging technologies like cognitive radio that give the radios the ability to share bandwith cooperatively and coexist with older transmission methods still in use on those frequencies, much of the existing investment in CB antennas and maybe even radios may be able to be retrofitted for use in an emerging Digital Citizens Band. And at 27mhz, the current maximum power limit of 5 watts is capable of transmitting to a coverage area extending for several miles with a decent antenna, not just several hundred meters.

Its just one way the citizens of the world can reclaim just a tiny piece of the frequency spectrum already allocated for their use and fast fading into obscurity.

Lets hope if the 27mhz band does get reprovisioned for anything, its reprovisioned for further unlicensed use by citizens for experimentation with community wide area digital communications, and not auctioned off for profit as just another chunk of bandwith allocated to obsolete technology to be taken from the people and given to corporate interests with a vested interest in charging for every bit of data sent over their networks.

We need a return to the spirit of innovation and engineering brilliance and excellence that brought humanity to the modern digital revolution.

And where better for this spirit to manifest itself than the frequency spectra allocated to the once pioneering concept of a Citizens Band.