AT&T Endorses Martin Open Access Plan for 700 MHz Auctions
AT&T supports the limited open access plan for the 700 MHz auction that FCC Chairman Kevin Martin proposed, it said. The stance seemingly reverses AT&T’s position last week, when it warned that a Google open access plan would invite lawsuits. “That seems a remarkable turnaround,” said a Public Knowledge spokesman. Another source close to the debate wondered aloud how one week AT&T could write so “substantive” an ex parte filing against adding open access conditions and the next endorse Martin’s plan.
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The new position is not a reversal, but an endorsement of a compromise pushed by Martin that takes some but not all of Google’s proposal, said an AT&T spokeswoman. The Martin plan, not yet public, would apply open access requirements only to one part of spectrum auctioned, she said, calling it an experiment. AT&T hasn’t seen the plan but gleaned an idea of its contents in meetings with agency officials, she said.
Martin’s plan has been circulating among commissioners in an effort to gain votes since July 10, leading some to think the item will be on the agenda of a July 31 FCC meeting. Although the date for the July meeting hasn’t been set, the chairman usually gives other commissioners 3 weeks to consider items slated for the meeting.
Open access would let consumers use any device or application they want on a wireless network, a change from today’s arrangement, with wireless companies able to limit what is used on their networks to products they sell. Google’s plan would apply open access to all licenses bought at auction, but the Martin plan is said to apply the concept only to one block and add various safeguards. The 700 MHz spectrum is deemed well-suited for mobile broadband service.
“AT&T has opposed the full Google plan for a variety of reasons,” said Senior Executive Vice President Jim Cicconi in a statement. However, “if our understandings are accurate, we believe Chairman Martin has struck an interesting and creative balance between the competing interests debating the Google plan,” he said. Covering as it does one block of new spectrum, “the plan would enable the introduction of an alternative wireless business model without requiring changes in the business models of AT&T and others in what is a highly competitive wireless industry,” Cicconi said.
Martin’s plan would give Google and other open access supporters a “'put up or shut up’ opportunity,” Cicconi said. “If they are serious, they will be able to bid and test their model in the marketplace against the business models of companies already enjoying widespread consumer acceptance.” AT&T “has no objections” to Martin’s idea, but will “reserve any decision” on whether to bid in the auction until final auction rules are adopted, he said.
AT&T is more comfortable with the Martin plan thanks to safeguards such as a minimum bid or “reserve” requirement for the auction overall, as well as the particular open access block, company officials said. These touches would “ensure that neither Google nor others would be able to obtain any block of spectrum without paying an appropriate price to the U.S. Treasury,” the company’s statement said. The proposal also calls for withdrawing the open access block if no bids meet the minimum, with that spectrum to be re-auctioned without the open requirements. The plan skips Google’s proposal to apply a wholesale business model to auctioned spectrum, AT&T said.
Martin’s plan would show the wireless industry if an open model makes money without exposing competitors to the financial risk of immediately moving to such a model, said an industry observer whose company isn’t a potential bidder. Some in the wireless industry see open access as potentially lucrative and there’s nothing to stop them from spreading it if the experimental block succeeds, he said.