Comments on: Assessing success in the FCC's 700MHz auction

It could be months or years before it's clear whether the FCC has met its policy objectives in the biggest wireless network to date.

[directorblue]

Auction success must be gauged by total return to the economy...

...only that would have made too much sense for the FCC, who limited the evaluation scope to a hard-dollar return.

Had a wholesaling requirement and all of the other open-access requirements Google suggested been stipulated by the FCC, we'd have touched off a tidal wave of innovation similar to Web 1.0.

Instead, FCC-head-und-former-telco-lawyer Kevin Martin set the stage for more market domination of wireless by Verizon and AT&T.

In fact, the last technical innovation I think AT&T came up with was the pink princess phone.

So we've got that going for us.

[chash360]

No Success

The fact that the auction occurred ensures that there will not be success for the people. Things that put money into the economy are things that put money in the common peoples pockets (for them to spend) not to be vacuumed up by the telco's. Telco profit does nothing for the economy. Paying for wireless 'service' is like paying someone for gravity. The only way to create real value is through productive work, not leaching off the public with government sanctioned monopolies.

The devices themselves can provide the service, what do we need the telcos for? Oh yeah billing, right???

Karma put a curse on Kevin Martin for selling out the American people, just like the rest of this screwed up Administration!

[My-Self]

What about us, the people ?

network operators had it sliced between themselves, but what about the rest of us ?
Why can't we have a part of the frequency spectrum ?
Why aren't citizen authorized to setup any form of private communication / wireless access / community service ?
Why is radio communication a privilege strictly reserved to powerful and wealthy corporations ?

The huge success of WiFi despite it's minuscule transmission power illustrate the need for citizen operated wireless and a reserved citizen bandwidth (allocated and shared among groups and individuals) that would spur a wave of innovations and public interest not unlike what ham radio did for previous generations. Part of the easy / cheap to use 700Mhz bandwidth would have been perfect for that use.

[JohnDPage]

What happens to the money?

$19.6 billion. That's money taken from the communications industry and fed into government coffers. A tax in reality. This notion that the spectrum 'belongs' to the FCC is odd. They sold something they don't own.

How about at least using the money to remove all federal taxes from phone service? That would immediately benefit the end users, grow the industry, and simplify billing.

[paulsecic]

Phony war

that's it

[chash360]

The people will end up paying for it....

The EM spectrum is a natural resource, and a limited one at that. It will be no surprise when they anounce what huge telco got the spectrum. And we will again pay 3 times as much to use what is cheaper than wired networks to maintain and provide service over, and they will continue to monopolize the airwaves. The gov and FCC will pocket this money and there will be no insurance that the people will get any benefit, that is not paid for 3 times over by their gouging pricing practices. The FCC had the perfect opportunity to establish a new updated wireless communications infratstructure to bring us through the next century, and instead they decided to line their pockets.

Don't be fooled by their claims of interoperability, when they say you can use any device, that means you can use any device as long as you pay for access.

What the people want and need is a free open network, where the FCC can regulate frequencies, power spectrums and device specs, but access is free and unimpeded by greedy telco's. If the FCC would regulate at the device level instead of the license level, we could revolutionize all communication at the pace of the peoples demand, verses the pace of telco's ability to gouge and profit (which does not drive innovation). For example if you could buy a single device that provided all of your communications service needs (Broadband Video, Voice and Internet, etc.) and did not require monthly fees, how much would you be willing to spend? I can tell you for absolute fact that such a device already exists, and costs less than any American pays for even one of the 'services' in a year (and that's making a profit on the device). Why don't we have it? because the FCC will not allow you to use this natural resource without a license, and they have just sold those licenses to the highest bidder ensuring we will not have free communication, and probably never will. The FCC has violated the American public by directly and intentionally creating a monopoly, AGAIN! Thanks for nothing FCC.

[freemarket--2008]

Nothing is FREE...

We would end up paying much more in taxes for the government bureaucracy needed to run this so-called 'free' network. But since you don't really know what your taxes are paying for anyways...who cares, right?

[ebswimax]

D Block Options...

The FCC grossed $19B+ for auction of this spectrum (700MHz A, B, C, & E Blocks). It is my opinion that the FCC decision makers knew that the D Block would not be bid on and that potential bidders were ?encouraged? to stay away because if the spectrum was to go to re-bid, it would provide another 10 ? 12 MHz of spectrum for strictly commercial broadband use.



Back in the 1960?s and 70?s the FCC assigned ITFS (now EBS, 2495MHz ? 2690MHz) to colleges, county and state school boards, and other non-profits for broadcast of educational content within their geographical service area (GSA). This did not cost these entities anything. Now this EBS is in high demand for its capabilities regarding WiMax and with the rule changes by the FCC back in 2004 companies like Sprint/Nextel and Clearwire have approached EBS Licensors with long term lease deals (big bucs for the EBS owner) for use of this spectrum within their GSA. The FCC screwed up on this one by allowing a ?du-opoly? to acquire long term use/lock of this spectrum.



Rather than going to re-bid for the 700MHz D Block, I believe the FCC should sit on or ?assign? (for now) this block to each individual County (3077) within the United States. As this spectrum is developed, and applications deployed, the Counties would then have this asset available for public/private partnerships. This could also provide the ability for this asset to address not only Public Safety apps, but other Municipal Operations, School System, and Community Outreach Programs such as Digital Inclusion & Literacy (low income/poverty level), Workforce Development, Urban, Youth, or Senior programs, etc.