Elsewhere on this website we have described the events that resulted in various FCC millimeterwave rules for frequencies above 57 GHz. Suffice it to say, your blogger was involved. At various times, senior colleagues of mine at FCC dismissed the need for policy activity here since no one was asking for it. (A variation of “no one ever got fired for buying IBM”)

Thus it was gratifying to see public data on 70/80 GHz licenses, courtesy of Comsearch, Inc. one of the database managers, that when analyzed shows the above plot of licenses vs. date. Basically “Clearwire Spectrum Holdings II, LLC” submitted about 1000 registrations to Comsearch in February (at $75 each) for links apparently in support of their new WiMAX network.

This doubles the number of licenses essentially overnight!