Spectrum Conspiracies At The FCC?
By Winter Casey
The FCC process for auctioning spectrum has been the object of some "very sophisticated conspiracies" that have made it unfair, Andrew Schwartzman, president of the Media Access Project, said Thursday.
Schwartzman was one of a number of panelists to raise the subject of the effectiveness of FCC spectrum policies during a Catholic University law school symposium. Schwartzman said there has been an over-reliance on exclusive licensing and auctions for airwaves.
He said there should be less reliance on auctions and putting money into the U.S. treasury. The country would be better off and have more opportunities for startup companies and innovation if it found more ways to devote spectrum to be used as unlicensed spectrum, Schwartzman said.
On the other side of the debate, Kathleen O'Brien Ham of T-Mobile said there is a place for unlicensed spectrum, but the problem is not auctions, which are positive. Rather, it is making sure there is enough spectrum to auction, which will bring down prices.
Ham said thousands of licenses are being distributed, and getting a significant amount of spectrum into the marketplace is a good thing.
Schwartzman said the auction process of people taking their ideas to Wall Street to track investment inevitably favors the larger, less innovative companies. But Ham said a lot of innovation starts with small businesses that go to Wall Street.
Richard Whitt, the Washington telecommunications and media counsel for the Google Internet firm, said there is no such thing as a pure market-based approach during an auction because every auction has rules. He also said people who pay the most for spectrum do not necessarily use it right away, and lengthy delays should not be permitted.
Johanna Shelton, senior counsel of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, said the issues will be examined by the committee soon.
Panel speakers said they expected issues such as privacy, security, media convergence, competition and spectrum to remain hot topics .
Maureen Ohlhausen, director of the FTC policy planning office, said disclosure, privacy and behavior-tracking are areas that are likely to attract more agency involvement.
Schwartzman anticipates that both privacy and behavior-tracking will be big regulatory issues of the future. He said he is concerned by the amount of data that companies such as Google are building into their business models.
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