Hundt: 700 MHz Rules Will Determine Wireless Broadband Future
The way the FCC structures the upcoming 700 MHz band auction will determine “the content, structure, and performance” of wireless broadband for the next 20-25 years, former FCC Chmn. Reed Hundt said during an interview that was scheduled to air Sat. on C-SPAN’s The Communicators series.
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Hundt is vice chmn. of Frontline Wireless and he used his C-SPAN appearance to challenge the FCC to set rules that will allow Frontline to carry out its business plan. Getting the rules right is more important than getting them done soon, he said, replying to a question that referred to Comr. McDowell’s statement that he wanted the auction completed before the Christmas holidays. At the time of his appearance, McDowell thought the 700 MHz rules would be completed in April, said his spokeswoman, but he agrees it’s important for the Commission to “resolve the complex issues before it to ensure the best possible outcome for American consumers and the public safety community.”
Frontline is “a startup,” Hundt said. “It is a hope. It is a chance.” The first problem is convincing the FCC to “give us a chance to buy spectrum at the last big auction,” he said. He expressed concern that the FCC believes that small companies don’t need bidding credits and will “find a way to write bidding credits” out of the Communications Act.
Frontline has big name investors, including John Doerr, “the greatest venture capitalist in the history of America,” and Jim Barksdale, former Netscape CEO, Hundt said. “All we are are people who believe in entrepreneurship, but we need the FCC to give us a chance and we need the rest of the country to give us some money to compete in the auction.”
The wireless industry, which largely grew from auctions held while Hundt was chairman, has become too consolidated and too monopolized, he said: “Monopolies don’t work that hard to compete.” Competition is necessary for innovation, he said.
Hundt focused mostly on the competition that Frontline, if successful, will bring to the wireless broadband arena, touching only briefly on what has been the headline of its plan: Building a nationwide public safety network. “We will build it for free but the FCC has to help us by writing the rules,” he said. “It is a very laudable public purpose and we want to have a shot at it.”
Asked for the Telecom Act accomplishment he was proudest of, Hundt said the E-rate program was the “most noble effort to connect the next generation to the Internet.”