The Federal Communications Commission has released a report at the end of last weak, meant to ease the worries of mobile carrier T-Mobile regarding the use of the 2155 – 2175 MHz band for Wi-Fi services. The announcement comes as the Federal Communications Commission is pushing for the auctioning of this spectrum that would ensure broadband services nationwide.

Among fears that offering free Wi-Fi services in the 2155 – 2175 MHz band, or AWS-3, would interfere with cell phone networks that receive signals in the 2110-2155 MHz band, or AWS-1, the Federal Communications Commission established that “an AWS-1 and AWS-3 device operating in close proximity does not necessarily result in interference.” And that is the worst case scenario: “when factoring in actual operation under non-static conditions, the situation only improves.”

T-Mobile is one of the strong opponents of using the AWS-3 band for Wi-Fi services, especially after investing billions of dollars for the ASW-1 spectrum, which its 3G network relies on. The stakes are high, but the Federal Communications Commission’s results were probably not what T-Mobile, or any other carrier (AT&T or Nokia Siemens Networks) had hoped for.

The mobile carriers have been opposing the proposal of M2Z Networks, a company that in May 2006, filed a request at the Federal Communications Commission to allow a spectrum license for a free broadband data service that would ensure coverage for 95 percent of the American population within 10 years. The proposal included a filter for indecent content, and 5 percent of the gross revenues derived from M2Z’s premium and wholesale subscription services going to the U.S. Treasury.

In June this year, the Federal Communications Commission showed support for licensing and operating the 2155 – 2180 MHz band, by combining the 2155 – 2175 MHz band with the 2175 – 2180 MHz band to create a 25 MHz spectrum, permit downlink and uplink transmissions throughout the 2155 – 2180 MHz band, adopt a single nationwide license for it and require the license to provide free, two-way broadband Internet service, including data rates of at least 768 kbps downstream using 25% of the network’s capacity and an “always-on” network-based filtering mechanism.

In August this year, M2Z asked the FCC to reject the request of mobile carriers for another AWS-3 spectrum test, which M2Z said was only a delay tactic from phone companies trying to block the free internet broadband service.

The company argued at the time that the fact that T-Mobile and other carriers demanded a fifth test, without providing a clear proof of mobile interference, was nothing but a blatant attempt to prevent the nationwide broadband competition.

John Muleta, CEO and founder of M2Z, said the situation is similar to that of the “white spaces,” where FCC is also facing the opposition of TV broadcasters, who claim the use of the spectrum would interfere with TV broadcasting: “endless calls for indefinite testing,” Muleta said.

Later this week, the Federal Communications Commission is expected to release a report on the white spaces as well, a controversial fight between Internet companies, such as Google and Microsoft, who want to use the unused spectrum between TV channels for wireless services, and TV broadcasters, who believe this would affect TV transmissions.