FCC Said to Be Changing Airwave Purchasing Rules

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has been quite busy over the last few months, floating all kinds of changes into how they assess fees and taxes and other general operational procedures. Now Commission Chairman Julius Genachowski says he is getting ready to propose a new way of judging whether airwaves purchased by various mobile companies raise anti-compete concerns.

If these changes went into effect, it would almost certainly affect the way some of the country’s largest cellular providers do business. It would also, perhaps for good, affect the way that some of the smaller cellular providers operate. All cellular companies need the approval of the FCC to purchase airwaves and more and more airwaves are being bought up as smartphones gain in popularity. The changes are expected to be announced at the September 28 meeting of the FCC and the difficulty is that while people are willing to whisper that changes will be made, no one will talk on just how these changes will affect the industry.

At the present time, the FCC usually limits the number of airwaves that can be purchased by one company to one-third of the whole in any market. If a company ends up purchasing more than that, it tends to get an extra long look from the FCC and they may be forced to sell the extra airwaves so that there is enough for other companies in the market to make the purchases.

“AT&T and Verizon seem to gobble up most of the new spectrum that becomes available, which helps them cement their already-significant leads in the marketplace,” John Bergmayer, senior staff attorney with the Washington-based policy group Public Knowledge, said in an e-mail. “To limit this, it’s important to update the screen before the broadcast incentive auctions take place.”

The FCC is preparing to hold an auction of airwaves that have been abandoned by television broadcasters as a way to allow even more cellular coverage. Several mobile carriers have reported that they are actually beginning to suffer from shortages. The demand for airwaves is expected to only increase once Apple’s newest iPhone hits the market.

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