My Spectrum Fantasy
Harold has written up his notes on the meeting yesterday at the FCC re spectrum auction rules, and given some preliminary analysis, though I’m sure he’ll be writing more about this, and thank the Big Kahuna he does, since his is one of the sane voices when it comes to Telecomm/Broadband/Spectrum Policy. And why does it not surprise me that he says it was a packed house for the meeting? I guess Big Media hasn’t kept the cap on this issue the way they wanted to.
What I’m seeing from the prelim is that those of us who wish these auction rules to favor the US Citizens who own the spectrum, instead of entrenched Telecomm interests, did get a few things we didn’t expect. Yes, it could have been a whole bunch better, but it’s not all bad. It’s a start. And if it does end up causing some good things to happen, it could reopen a lot of discussions that Telecomm incumbents don’t want to see reopened. What follows is my interpretation of what Harold reported, and I admit I’m not the Policy weenie he is, so if I’m missing something in my read on this, please point it out.
The biggie that came out of this, from what I’m reading, is that the Auction will be totally anonymous, without any precondition or test, so that the Usual Suspects won’t be able to signal each other and keep out the new guys. This is a strong win for the white hats, though there are a few worrisome things in the details.
On the block of spectrum that Google brought into question with their statement they’d meet the reserve if we got all open access including wholesale, we got device and application open access, aka the Martin Compromise, with no wholesale. This is a partial win. It’s also important to note that anyone who does win this block, wholesaleing is not forbidden, it just isn’t mandatory.
On the Public Service spectrum, the rules seem to be pretty much the Frontline Proposal but without the Open Access provisions. Again, a partial win.
We didn’t get the limitations on amount of spectrum purchased by any one bidder nor the credits for new entrants.
The biggest worry in this is that all blocks of spectrum have reserves set on them. And there is a provision that any block that doesn’t get sold will be put back on the auction block without these “regulatory restrictions”. This sets the strategy for the Incumbent Telecomms, who just may sit out the first round, hoping that none of this spectrum meets the minimum bid. The danger to them being, of course, that most or all blocks do meet the minimum.
Which leads me to my Spectrum Fantasy– Let there be a coalition of Pro Open Access Players who buy up a huge chunk (dare I wish for all? Hell yeah!) of this spectrum in the first bidding round, snatching it away from the incumbents. And then the Coalition wholesales that block out the way we all wish it to be. The result? It’s a huge success and shows the Telecomms up for the anti-Citizen Monopolists they are, cutting into their business model, building out the Net Neutral broadband we all want to many areas underserved by the Incumbents as well as competing with them directly, and relegating them to the status of dinosaur. It would be a novel thing for them to experience UnPlanned Obsolescence. And it would serve them right for spending OUR HARD EARNED TAX DOLLARS, that they received through tax credits to build out broadband and then didn’t do so, on lobbying Congress for legislation that is against the best interest of the OWNERS of that spectrum (who are US Citizens.)
Technorati Tags: Spectrum Auction, Telecomm Policy, FCC, Martin, Open Access
