WhyDom

Former FCC Chairman Reed Hundt’s company, Frontline Wireless, is proposing that one of the requirements of the 700 Mhz auction is to require that certain spectrum be built out by the winner for public safety. GigaOM had a great blog on Frontline last month.  I heard Chairman Hundt speak at the Boston TIECON 2007 conference  two weeks ago. He was amazing speaker and really has a solid grasp of the bigger issues. Check out his book on China.  Frontline Wireless also has Janice Obuchowski who served in the Bush administration, James Barksdale, of Netscape fame, Ram Shriram, first investor in Google, Vanu Bose (son of Bose music), and John Doerr, of Kleiner Perkins (Google, eBay, Amazon…). If this list of players - all with strong opinions - agrees on this one issue they should be listened to closely by the politicians and the FCC. 

The purpose of the auction is not just to raise money for the treasury but to efficiently allocate the spectrum for the best use for the American people.  Money is an issue, however, because of the current deficit. This one 700 MHz auction is expected to raise $20-$30b.  Compare that to the 14 FCC auctions through 1997 which raised, in total, a mere $23.1 billion.  In the current 700 MHz auction, the FCC commissioners past and present, politicians, and the brightest and best of our monied innovators are trying to prevent what has happened in the past: spectrum sold to existing providers, with lots of market share but with few results for the public good.

Reed Hundt’s idea at Frontline Wireless seems to be the best alternative. It has the potential to drive a new broadband technology that could reach all Americans and, at the same time, deliver at no cost to the many small public safety agencies, a nationwide public safety broadband and voice system. To make it happen, the FCC should prevent companies with more than 30% market share of broadband services, wired or wireless, the RSA’s and MSA’s from competing for the spectrum.  The FCC should also require a build out in each MSA by the winners of the auction within a set period of time with a claw back for MSA’s that are not built out and serving a certain small but meaningful percentage of the market with broadband.  Such a carefully managed auction would bring in fresh players, spawn new ideas, reach more consumers, and lower the bandwidth charges for all Americans.