Time to Write the FCC
Within the next month the Federal Communications Commission is very likely to issue final regulations governing the auction of valuable 700MHz spectrum, which, by law, must start at the beginning of 2008. Now's the last chance to have a voice in this process and it's worth taking a minute to respond.
Context & Ripple Effects
The FCC has already confirmed plans to auction off prime 700MHz spectrum being vacated by analog TV broadcasters in 2009, and per the law cited here the auction itself must begin at the start of 2008. With final regulations expected within the month, this post is a last-call for public comment — the point in rulemaking where open-access conditions, reserve prices, and block sizes get locked in.
The stakes sit alongside two other live proceedings at the commission: Chairman Kevin Martin's May 2007 order forcing large telcos to stop blocking calls into Iowa-based free calling services, and the FCC's ongoing tests of devices that would deliver high-speed Internet over unused TV airwaves, with findings due in July. Together they frame 2007 as the year the commission decides who gets to use the TV bands, and on what terms.
First-order effects
- Whoever files comments in the next few weeks — incumbent carriers, prospective entrants, public-interest groups — has a direct shot at shaping the auction rules before they are finalized, after which the bidding field and minimum conditions are effectively set.
- Analog broadcasters facing the 2009 transition now know their vacated spectrum will be sold under rules written this summer, making the comment period their last cheap lever on how quickly and completely they must clear the band.
Second-order effects
- If the final rules favor open-access or set-aside conditions, large telcos face a bidding environment designed to admit non-traditional entrants, forcing them to either bid defensively or compete against whoever wins under friendlier terms.
- Device and equipment makers gain a signal: rules written now, plus the July findings on white-space Internet devices, will determine whether the TV bands become a licensed-carrier market, an open-device market, or both — dictating what hardware is worth building.
Third-order effects
- The pattern across these proceedings points toward the FCC treating TV-band spectrum as a resource to be re-allocated from broadcasting to wireless broadband — through auction, open-access conditions, or unlicensed white-space use — rather than left with incumbents.
- If public-comment pressure measurably changes the rules, it strengthens the case that spectrum policy is contested in the rulemaking phase, not just at the auction, raising the stakes of organized commenting for every future band release.
The trend: Television-band spectrum is being converted from broadcast licenses into wireless broadband capacity, with the FCC's 700MHz rulemaking and white-space testing setting the template for how openly that capacity is shared.