McCain urges auction for MSS spectrum
WASHINGTON-The wireless industry got some powerful support Dec. 20 in its quest to have the Federal Communications Commission auction off spectrum in the 2 GHz band currently set aside for mobile satellite services.
“Congress has mandated that FCC spectrum licensing in almost all cases be performed through auctions. The competitive bidding process is designed to ensure that spectrum is assigned to parties that value most highly the opportunity to use it, and to compensate the public for the use of its resources,” said Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), incoming chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee.
McCain’s letter came three days after a letter by the Cellular Telecommunications & Internet Association urging the FCC to either auction off the MSS spectrum or go slow in allowing MSS operators the opportunity to offer ancillary terrestrial services.
“Any decision regarding this very valuable block of spectrum will signal the direction the [FCC] will take in its comprehensive review of spectrum-policy issues,” said CTIA President Thomas Wheeler on Dec. 17. “The only justifiable position from both a legal and policy standpoint would be for the commission to reallocate and auction the majority of the 2 GHz MSS spectrum, and to deny the requested [ancillary terrestrial component] ATC terrestrial authority. … A hasty decision by the [FCC] granting ATC will most likely result in a morass of legal proceedings, and a guarantee that this spectrum would either lie fallow or be inefficiently used for years to come.”
McCain reminded FCC Chairman Michael Powell that the commission recently said in the Northpoint proceeding that satellite spectrum that is used for other purposes must be obtained through auctions.
“The [FCC] has previously implemented this requirement by concluding that, where multiple parties seek to use satellite spectrum to provide terrestrial services, the terrestrial rights must be auctioned,” said McCain.
In addition, on Dec. 18, CTIA expressed outrage that the FCC would consider letting MSS operators offer non-MSS phones for their terrestrial service.
“It’s a classic bait and switch. ICO [Global Communications] promised the FCC it would build satellite telephone communications and in return, the FCC gave ICO billions of dollars worth of spectrum for free,” said Steven Berry, CTIA senior vice president of government affairs. “Now ICO wants to use its free spectrum to provide regular, wireless service-thumbing its nose at the promises it made to the FCC, but keeping the spectrum it got in the deal.”
Berry was reacting to an ICO filing made on Dec. 17 where CTIA quoted the MSS operator as saying it must offer phones “comparable in size, cost, and battery life to terrestrial wireless phones.”
“The FCC should see this charade for what it is, and deny MSS providers terrestrial capability altogether,” said Berry.
CTIA has been waging a fight against a grant of terrestrial authority for MSS operators ever since Craig McCaw said it was the only viable way to rescue ICO.
The wireless industry would like some of the 2 GHz band auctioned and used for third-generation mobile services. RCR
