Thursday litigation thought
Verizon has joined AT&T in favoring the Martin plan.
The summer brawl over the 700 MHz auction does seem to be steaming to a close. For now, at least.
It's very likely that the “open device, open application” rules won't be sufficiently clear or enforceable to make a difference. Remember the 1996 Act? All those good intentions about making the incumbent telephone companies open up their equipment for use by competitive (non-incumbent) local companies? Because there was so much litigation over what
rates an incumbent could charge for use of its equipment, the
interconnection/unbundling regime prescribed by the 1996 Act failed.
Meanwhile, competitive local telephone companies went out of business, as did ISPs.
You can just imagine how much the winner of the national blocks in this 700 MHz auction (who will be Verizon or AT&T) will want to fight over certification standards for devices and differential treatment of applications. At the same time, they'll be creating enormous path-dependencies for an entire generation of technology. They'll buy time with lawsuits.
Or, on another front, maybe Frontline will sue (although it's tough to see the business model for doing so). Frontline had an audacious, solves-all-problems plan. Maybe they'll join with public safety officials in saying that the Commission's auction rules won't result in the right kind of dedicated network (the kind that Congress wanted), and that therefore the auction is unlawful.
It's frustrating. Someone said to me today, “Why don't we just have a few days of riots?” I can't imagine Americans rioting over communications policy, and neither can you. The Commission wouldn't be moved by riots - neither would the Congress. Google is right that the “foreclosure value” to the incumbents of these
licenses isn't the same as their market value, and so the incumbents
will spend whatever it takes to block new entrants. The people who want things to change don't have any levers to pull at the moment.
But there can always be lawsuits.
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