Groups See 2.1 GHz as Next Frontier for Open Access Rules
Ten public interest groups told the FCC that M2Z’s proposal for a nationwide, free wireless broadband network at 2.1 GHz is attractive but has too many failings to support. Instead, the groups urged the agency to examine making the spectrum available for unlicensed use or through a license but with strict conditions imposing open access requirements. Google made similar arguments in a separate filing with the agency. The comments added to a flurry of activity at the FCC on an AWS III auction, short for advanced wireless services, of 2.1 GHz spectrum. FCC Chairman Kevin Martin late last week began circulating a proposed rulemaking on rules for an auction (CD Aug 28 p1).
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Time is running short. Martin believes the FCC is required to deal by Saturday with a forbearance petition filed by M2Z. Some members of the FCC are reluctant to vote on an M2Z order without a rulemaking moving the agency a step closer to an auction, industry sources say.
Harold Feld, senior vice president of the Media Access Project, one of the 10 groups, told us Tuesday the FCC should take the time need for a rulemaking notice that asks all the necessary questions. The Champaign-Urbana Wireless Network, Consumers Union, the Consumer Federation of America, Free Press, Educause, the National Hispanic Media Coalition, the New America Foundation, Public Knowledge, and U.S. PIRG also signed off on the filing. “An NPRM is circulating but that’s always flexible,” Feld said. “If there is an NPRM, which there should be, we would like to see our issues included.”
The FCC imposed an open access requirement in the rules for the 700 MHz C block - the massive regional licenses. “Many of the things here are continuing themes from the 700 MHz auction,” Feld said. “Some of the benefits that M2Z promised, which looked pretty good before 700 MHz, are not as exciting now.”
“Certain aspects of the M2Z Application -- such as mandatory filtering for the free tier and ‘opt out’ provision for the paid tier -- raise serious concerns,” the groups said. The rules that M2Z seeks won’t guarantee the network will be open to all devices or offer net neutrality that would “confer the full benefits of innovation and free expression to the public,” the letter said. M2Z has also not committed to mandatory, nondiscriminatory wholesaling, the letter said. Still, the M2Z proposal does offer “significant benefits to the American people,” the groups said.
Google said its filing marked its first comments on the M2Z plan or other proposals for the 2.1 GHz spectrum. A rulemaking should ask questions about the benefits of licensed versus unlicensed use of the band, it said. The FCC also should examine “salient technical characteristics” of the 2.1 GHz spectrum, including its potential use “to support a nationwide broadband network,” Google said. The rulemaking should consider the desirability of service rules that “foster new entrant competition through ‘open platforms’ and other license conditions similar to those sought by Google and others in the recent 700 MHz proceeding,” the company said.