WIRELESS INDUSTRY CALLS FOR FAST SPECTRUM DECISIONS
Wireless industry continued Thurs. to step up calls for policymakers to move quickly to free up spectrum and to examine auction plans that would use part of proceeds from bidding to move incumbents. One theme of wireless panel at Precursor Group conference in Washington was that decisions needed to be made quickly to keep U.S. competitive with wireless data offerings unfolding elsewhere in world. FCC Wireless Bureau Chief Thomas Sugrue told conference that Commission planned to make decision by fall on notice of proposed rulemaking on whether there still is need for spectrum cap.
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In calls to rethink spectrum management, several panelists urged policymakers to put less emphasis on revenue generated for U.S. Treasury from auctions. Referring to $17 billion raised in PCS auction that ended in Jan., Cingular Vp-Federal Relations Brian Fontes said “it would have been nice to have some of that money go to clear valuable spectrum.” Using proceeds to help clear incumbents such as govt. users ultimately would help create more valuable spectrum at auctions by freeing up bands, he said. One proposal that wireless industry has floated to Bush Administration has been to examine way to take proceeds from upcoming auction and use it in forward-looking way to move incumbents in another future auction. Incumbents are issue in both 700 MHz auction now set for Sept. 12 and 3rd-generation wireless auction scheduled for 2002.
Not surprisingly, CTIA Pres. Thomas Wheeler and Fontes reiterated their calls for FCC to lift wireless cap of 45 MHz in most markets, except rural areas where it’s 55 MHz. Wheeler said that even without cap, competition concerns about spectrum concentration still would be addressed in Dept. of Justice reviews. Former FCC Chmn. Reed Hundt, now senior adviser with McKinsey & Co., said cap should be lifted but in conjunction with more spectrum’s being made available. Hundt said McKinsey had has projected that 200-300 MHz more of spectrum should be made available to carriers to remain competitive. He called on FCC to commit within 30-60 days to announcing how more spectrum could be delivered to market in next 12 months. While expedient decisions are key, new Commission that will be assembled in next few months will need to take time to get up to speed “at a time when these issues are so critical,” Fontes said.
Sugrue said that based on press reports, FCC anticipated it could get petitions to deny license applications in recent PCS re- auction. As result, bureau is setting up teams to process any filings it receives by March 9 deadline to file petitions, he said. Bureau would like to wrap up work on those filings within few months “and certainly not longer, despite the issues,” he said. Commission has standards for de jure and de facto control for assessing designated entities and those standards will be applied, he said. Responding to Hundt’s characterization of $17 billion prices at auction as “a sin,” Sugrue said bidding itself didn’t set value of licenses but it revealed valuations market already had placed on spectrum. “One of the good things that auctions do is reveal information,” he said. Sugrue also cited how that spectrum has been widely disseminated in last several decades so that bands that would be prime real estate for wireless carriers already have been taken. “We have to struggle with this. If that’s a little messy for you, that’s just the real world,” he said. Sugrue also said challenges were both technical and political involving such spectrum issues as moving incumbents. “Political realities” can’t simply be dismissed, he said.