FCC plans to "auction" 3G spectrum (PDF file)
The FCC’s press release (PDF) says,
the Commission intends to commence an auction for Advanced Wireless Services licenses in the 1710-1755 MHz and 2110-2155 MHz bands as early as June 2006. …
To which Brett Glass replied,
Unfortunately, if this auction follows the pattern of previous ones, the sizes of the regions auctioned — and the speculative prices which large existing carriers will be willing to pay to preclude competition — will prevent small, new, or innovative operators from having a shot at buying this spectrum. You’ll see the big names — Verizon, Cingular, Nextel — but not smaller local operators, in keeping with the FCC’s chumminess with large corporations.
Selling spectrum for exclusive, permanent ownership to a private or corporate entity should be grounds for racketeering charges against the agency pretending its theirs to sell and the congresspeople who passed laws allowing for this if they received bribes (so called campaign contributions) from the industry that is getting these public commons at a fixed price, non lease based price.
It is a sad day “For all of us who believe in the future of wireless broadband”. All this does is gum up the spectrum more and reward oligopolies who try to control the last mile so they can foist their walled gardens on the citizens who truly own the spectrum and have no real input to this corporate giveaway.
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