Today Congress is holding hearings about the reverse incentive actions. On Wednesday, December 19, we will be streaming live from Washington our discussion about reverse incentive actions. We’ve gathered a former FCC Commissioner, a current FCC leader and several of our lawyer friends, because these actions are setting the stage for the next wave of spectrum policies.
Let’s talk about the precipice.
In the Clinton administration, one of the reasons that the government had a surplus was the licensing of spectrum now associated with our LTE roll out. When the government moved us to HDTV signals the old TV stations’ spectrum became a new opportunity for auctions. It was also hoped that the sum of the spectrum would be unlicensed and available for the next generation of Wi-Fi - what FCC Commissioner Genachowski has called Super WiFi, and where we got the name for our Super Wi-Fi Conference in Miami, Jan. 29-Feb. 1.
The fiscal cliff has given rise to the spectrum being seen as part of the revenue side for the negotiations, and the result is the reverse incentive actions are going to be used to build spectrum opportunities for auction.
The question we have to face is exactly how much spectrum will be freed up and will any of it be considered “open” for business to use independent of the auction? The actions now bring us to the precedent... Read More
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