WASHINGTON-The auction policy which saw the mobile-phone industry pay millions of dollars for radio-frequency spectrum was wrong, said Sen. George Allen (R. Va.).
Speaking later to reporters Allen backed away from his public remarks noting that auctions for third-generation wireless spectrum will be necessary to pay for the relocation of the Defense Department. Allen still believes however that there should be no auction for spectrum allocated to wireless broadband or Wi-Fi.
Allen pushed his Wi-Fi bill which he says now no longer contains a provision derided by the mobile-phone industry to allocate spectrum in the 700 MHz band to Wi-Fi, at the 20th Annual Telecommunications Policy and Regulations Seminar sponsored by the Practising Law Institute and the Federal Communications Bar Association.
