Spectrum efficiency demands that each transmission occupies no more bandwidth than is necessary to establish a quality communications path. As you know, the Commission segmented the 700 MHz narrowband spectrum into 6.25 kHz channels. We did this in the expectation that the technology necessary to accommodate one voice channel in a 6.25 kHz bandwidth will be developed and will be suitable for public safety s purposes. Now, we may not be there yet. But I think it is important to keep this goal in mind as we address these issues.
Technology changes rapidly.
The cellular telephone that weighed six pounds has been transformed to a device that I can carry in my shirt pocket. Large scale integration is approaching the point where it may be possible to put most of a radio s circuitry on a single chip. Software-defined radios are already on the drawing board. New data compression and digital modulation techniques let us squeeze more bits into a smaller bandwidth. The trend is to smaller, smarter radios that use less of the spectrum resource.