Some House Commerce Committee members go on record opposing Frontline plan

More than a dozen House Commerce Committee lawmakers urged Federal Communications Commission Chairman Kevin Martin to reject Frontline Wireless L.L.C.’s push to have the agency create a national 700 MHz commercial-public safety broadband license with an open-access component.
“We believe that it is worth considering whether public-private partnerships can help first responders use more efficiently the 24 megahertz of spectrum that was cleared by the Digital Television Transition and Public Safety Act of 2005 and made available specifically for that purpose. Proposals like those of Frontline to jury-rig the 700 MHz auction, however, would force public-safety officials to negotiate with one winner, of one auction, with one pre-determined business plan and no track record of success,” stated a mostly GOP group that included ranking committee member Joe Barton (R-Texas), ranking telecom subcommittee member Fred Upton (R-Mich.) and four Democrats. The letter was not signed by any senior Democrats on the panel.
The FCC is expected to issue 700 MHz service and bidding rules this month for the auction of 60 megahertz of spectrum whose value is heightened by its excellent propagation characteristics and the likelihood this will be the last auction of this magnitude for a long time. The auction could generate up to $15 billion for the U.S. Treasury. Bidding is slated to begin later this year.
“They’re going to get a written response, but what I would say is that they don’t seem to have heard about the iPhone,” said Reed Hundt, vice chairman of Frontline and a former FCC chairman, in response. “They don’t seem to have recognized that 500,000 new convergence devices were sold over the weekend and that this policy that they’re advocating of selling all the spectrum to Verizon isn’t a solution to this problem.”
Hundt claims the public is getting a lousy deal, noting the cost of the two-year service contract with AT&T Mobility and the less-than-spectacular speed of the EDGE network on which the Apple Inc. iPhone operates. “There’s no consumer appliance in America that comes bundled with mandatory service from just one communications firm at a price three times the price of the device,” he said.
Frontline, a Silicon Valley-backed startup led by former telecom policymakers and former Vanguard Cellular Systems Inc. executive Haynes Griffin, proposed that the auction winner of a 10 megahertz commercial block be permitted to access half of public safety’s 24 megahertz of spectrum at 700 MHz. In exchange, first responders could tap into the commercial 10 megahertz on a priority basis during emergencies when demand peaks.
Frontline has backing from some consumer groups and first-responder communications organizations. Public-safety groups have not specifically endorsed the Frontline plan, however, with the issue of network control remaining a major sticking point.
Mobile-phone carriers, state and local government organizations and various House and Senate members oppose the Frontline plan.