more on FCC to auction three 3G bands from June 06

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

------ Forwarded Message
From: Brett Glass <brett () lariat org>
Date: Thu, 30 Dec 2004 14:39:47 -0700
To: <dave () farber net>, Ip <ip () v2 listbox com>
Subject: Re: [IP] FCC to auction three 3G bands from June 06


> The US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) will auction off the
> States' 1710-1755MHz and 2110-2155MHz spectrum bands to prospective 3G
> telephony providers by June 2006 at the earliest.
>
> The FCC will also auction off the 1432-1435MHz band soon afterward, the
> organisation said, possibly as early as July or August 2006.

Unfortunately, if this auction follows the pattern of previous ones,
the sizes of the regions auctioned -- and the speculative prices which
large existing carriers will be willing to pay to preclude competition --
will prevent small, new, or innovative operators from having a shot at
buying this spectrum. You'll see the big names -- Verizon, Cingular,
Nextel -- but not smaller local operators, in keeping with the FCC's
chumminess with large corporations.

Those who don't want this to be a "non-event" should ask the FCC and
members of Congress to insist that this spectrum be made available
in small enough geographic chunks that local operators can bid, and
that local businesses be given preference over national and multinational
corporations. If the FCC fails to do this, it will have struck yet another
blow at the heart of small telecommunications operators and wireless
broadband providers at the behest of the Bush Administration's corporate
cronies.

--Brett Glass


------ End of Forwarded Message


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