[RTC List] wireless broadband - FCC spectrum auction

[Sean McLaughlin]

Folks interested in rural broadband will be following the FCC's spectrum 
auction for 700Mhz range - wireless broadband's next leap forward...

*Groups call for competitive spectrum auction*
*A consortium of businesses, consumer advocates, and think tanks want 
the upcoming auction of 700MHz spectrum to include open access 
requirements*
*by Grant Gross*
*IDG News Service*
*06/01/07*

New broadband providers should be given a better chance of winning 
pieces of valuable wireless spectrum to be auctioned by early next year, 
several groups said Friday.  The groups, including Google, startup 
Frontline Wireless, and consumer advocate Public Knowledge, called on 
the U.S. Federal Communications Commission to change the way it auctions 
spectrum when it sells off 60Mhz of spectrum to be freed up when U.S. 
television stations move to all-digital broadcasts.

The auction of the coveted 700MHz band of spectrum -- which allows 
broadband-speed wireless signals to travel farther and penetrate 
buildings better than some other bands -- presents the best hope U.S. 
consumers have of a third major broadband service to challenge cable and 
DSL carriers, said Michael Calabrese, director of the Wireless Future 
Program at the New America Foundation, a think tank that hosted Friday's 
spectrum forum.

"If we do nothing -- if we take the [auction] rules we've used for the 
last 10 years, the same incumbents are going to win," added Harold Feld, 
senior vice president of the Media Access Project, an open media 
advocacy group. "There is no competition fairy. There is no magic that's 
going to happen that if we just deregulate enough, somehow a new 
competitor is going to emerge."   --->
/http://www.infoworld.com/article/07/06/01/Groups-call-for-competitive-spectrum-auction_1.html/ 

/~/

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