Spectrum Sunday/Monday
Long days of reading about spectrum policy, and, in particular, the big auction of “beachfront” spectrum coming up later this year.
Why can't some of this spectrum be left unlicensed? Yes, we've seen great growth and ingenuity spurred on by having unlicensed spectrum being made available. But Congress has said that the “commercial use” part of this spectrum has to be assigned through competitive bidding, and that means auctions and licenses. The Commission believes that competitive bidding and auctions will “ensure[] that spectrum licenses are assigned to
those who place the highest value on the resource and will be suited to put the
licenses to their most efficient use.” Even though we have no idea, really, whether licensing is more efficient or more valuable to society than letting this spectrum be used by unlicensed devices.
How will this auction affect whether DSL/cable providers are subject to competition from wireless broadband providers? Unclear. The Frontline proposal is remarkably audacious. Create a new nationwide block license. Extend the license for 15 years, not just ten. Require whoever bids for it to pay cash up front (billions) in order to win. Require whoever bids for it to have a business plan that will involve building (at no cost to the public) a free public safety highspeed network. Use of the new nationwide license will be preemptible by public safety emergency needs. It's a pretty elaborate plan that might result in making available a new wholesale source of highspeed access with some watery neutrality. But is it a giveaway to a former government employee — will the rules be written so that only Frontline can win? Does it make sense? I have a lot to learn about this.
In the meantime, I've had two days of San Francisco light and fog, all for spectrum reading.
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