The FCC’s Incentive Auctions rulemaking docket is titled:
“Expanding Economic and Innovation Opportunities of Spectrum…” With an increasing majority of
the American TV audience choosing to consume their video programming via wired
or wireless broadband, rather than
over the air broadcast signals, new spectrum to be voluntarily relinquished by
TV broadcasters will become available to the highest bidders in the mobile
broadband business, hopefully to boost coverage and capacity. The public safety
network and the U.S. Treasury also stand to gain something in the bargain. Not end of story. Spectrum holdings limits
currently under consideration by the FCC in a separate parallel proceeding
should prevent further concentration in the amount of spectrum controlled by
the mobile wireless duopoly, thereby leaving some chance of winning bids by
smaller carriers. And some
of the available spectrum should not be auctioned or licensed at all.
As FCC Chairman Genachowski noted at last week’s CES in Las
Vegas, an innovative spectrum policy 30 years ago eventually “gave us cordless
phones, Bluetooth and WiFi” …all valuable developments that could not have been forecast at
the time. Future leaps like Gigabit
WiFi in the 5 MHz band will require unprecedented collaboration with other
agencies, including the Defense Department, which already have rights to use
this spectrum for other purposes. This
is very desirable, but also hugely ambitious given the military is the 800 lb
gorilla in Washington inter-agency politics. By contrast, the FCC Chairman noted, the Commission has already
been taking steps to promote next generation unlicensed spectrum in lower frequencies
than existing wi-fi which can facilitate outdoor and next door use at greater
distances. We applaud and
encourage the FCC’s efforts to ensure a significant amount of low-band
unlicensed spectrum recovered from TV broadcasters will be available for robust
innovative uses including wifi on a consistent, nationwide basis.
