FCC to conduct more open auction for 700MHz band

By Colleen Taylor, Contributing Editor -- Electronic News, 8/1/2007

In a move that could dramatically alter the current communications landscape, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Tuesday revised the 700MHz band plan and service rules to allow for a portion of the spectrum to have "open access," that is, a nationwide interoperable broadband network not controlled by a single telecommunications carrier.

The FCC has been mulling for some time over what to do with the 700MHz band spectrum, which runs from 698MHz  to 806MHz, and is currently occupied by television broadcasters. The spectrum will be made available for other wireless services, including public safety and commercial services, as a result of the digital television (DTV) transition, as the Digital Television and Public Safety Act of 2005 (DTV Act) set a firm deadline of February 17, 2009, for the completion of the DTV transition. The DTV Act also requires the FCC to commence an auction of the previously unauctioned commercial spectrum in the 700MHz band no later than January 28, 2008.

A group of tech industry giants, led by Google and including Intel, Yahoo, and eBay, have joined together in recent months to lobby the FCC to set aside a swath of the 700MHz spectrum in the auction for open public use, so that corporate telecom providers do not have complete rule over the addition to the wireless landscape.  The group, which has dubbed itself the "Coalition for 4G in America," has said that in the U.S., spectrum traditionally has been allocated in a "fragmented, inefficient manner" that allows only a few, very powerful telecom companies to control the population's access to features like the Internet. The group said that its aim is to "make broadband much more affordable and readily available to consumers across the country." Google has said that it intends to participate in the auction only if the FCC heeds its request for a more "open" platform.

In the rules the FCC announced yesterday, it seems that the commission has adopted at least some of the requests to help create what the FCC termed a "national broadband network for public safety." Under the new band, 62 MHz of spectrum, divided into five spectrum blocks, will be auctioned for commercial uses; one of the spectrum blocks to be auctioned—the large, 22 MHz upper 700MHz C block—will be required to provide a platform that is "more open" to devices and applications.

These licensees will be required to allow customers, device manufacturers, third-party application developers, and others to use any device or application of their choice on their networks in this band, subject to certain conditions.

In a posting made Tuesday afternoon on its public policy blog, Google expressed some pleasure with the FCC's ruling, but pointed out that the commission adopted just two of the four openness conditions asked for by the company and its 4G Coalition. "None of us like how the current system locks you into wireless service plans that limit the kind of phone or PDA you can use, prevent you from downloading and using the software of your choice, and charge you hefty termination fees if you try to get out," Richard Whitt of Google's Washington telecom and media counsel, wrote in the blog post.

"And it's hard to ignore how the existing wireless carriers talk a good game about the virtues of the free market, but prefer to keep us stuck in their closed market. Today the FCC took some concrete steps on the road to bringing greater choice and competition to all Americans."