Genachowski Aide Predicts Broadcast Spectrum Auction Within Two Years
The FCC is expected to conduct a voluntary incentive auction of broadcast spectrum in 18-24 months, said Amy Levine, a senior aide to Chairman Julius Genachowski. Blair Levin, who led FCC development of the National Broadband Plan, warned that the U.S. is “moving backwards, not forwards” in getting more spectrum online for broadband. They spoke at a Minority Media and Telecom Council forum Tuesday.
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The spectrum legislation was “a tremendous accomplishment for this FCC and this FCC chairman,” Levine said. “We're excited about the opportunity to implement incentive auctions.” An auction design team will look at the legislation and devise the rules for implement what is a more complicated form of spectrum auction -- a two-sided auction, she said. Levine conceded many open questions remain about the legislation. “You've got a bill here with no legislative history in it, no conference report,” she said. “It just leaves a lot of things open to debate.”
Levin was more pessimistic, suggesting that the amount of detail the law provides on incentive auctions could slow the start of an auction “dramatically.” Congress “wrote a number of different sentences, all of which I predict will be litigated,” he said. “When you do the repacking, the fundamental problem is 100 percent of the broadcasters believe they're entitled to 100 percent, plus, of their coverage area. That’s a mathematical impossibility.” Levin said it’s also increasingly clear that little new spectrum will be reallocated for broadband anytime soon.
The White House has a key role to play in forcing government agencies to come to the table to talk about moving their communications to make way to reallocate more bands to broadband, said Mobile Future Chairman Jonathan Spalter, a White House aide in the Clinton administration. He responded to a question about Department of Defense resistance. “Ultimately, the buck really does stop at the White House,” Spalter said. “We do have civilian control of the military."
President Barack Obama has been clear about the importance of mobile broadband, Spalter said. “The question of whether the details have been sufficiently engaged, not in the West Wing, but in offices at the White House, is a question” whose answer is “left to be seen,” he said. It’s clear the wireless industry needs more spectrum as quickly as possible, Spalter said. With the typical sector of a cell tower, it takes only 30 users of YouTube to “blow out the sector,” he said. “This is a real and present danger. The facts are dramatic. It could be as early as 2014 … that we will hit the proverbial spectrum wall."
No new band has been converted to broadband since the release of the national plan almost two years ago, Levin said. The same week Congress enacted spectrum legislation, the FCC effectively took 40 MHz of LightSquared spectrum out of play, he said. Carriers lost access to the D-block, reallocated to public safety in the legislation, which had been available for commercial use, but never reauctioned after it didn’t sell during the initial 700 MHz auction, he said. “We have not moved government spectrum into the commercial marketplace as we have hoped,” Levin said. “We have to consider the possibility that given our political process, the path of reallocating spectrum may not bear much fruit,” he said. “We should keep at it, but we should not put all of our chips on that number.”
The FCC shouldn’t lose sight of the message sent as a result of the LightSquared failure, Levin said. “Just as the stock market sends clear messages about capital formation, our political system has sent a clear signal to anyone seeking to utilize previously underutilized spectrum that the process … is fraught with uncertainty, irrationality and last-minute surprises.” Levine said “it is a challenge … to find spectrum that can be freed up for mobile broadband.” That’s “just a fact, but is something that we continue to work at,” she said.
The FCC has missed several chances to hold auctions on spectrum that had been teed up for a sale, such as the 700 MHz D-block, or the AWS 3 band, said Angela Giancarlo, chief of staff to Commissioner Robert McDowell. “Time is money is lost opportunity.” Opening the TV white spaces for unlicensed use has “taken a very, very long time and still has a long ways to go,” she said, noting that the process started under former Chairman Michael Powell. Reallocating spectrum for broadband will be “really difficult,” said Louis Peraertz, aide to Commissioner Mignon Clyburn. “Are we going to hit the 10-year deadline, I don’t know. But thank goodness we started already.”