WASHINGTON-The Federal Communications Commission early next year will hold a spectrum summit as policymakers rethink fundamental programs that have governed the airwaves for a half century, instead turning to the marketplace for answers.
The all-day conference, inspired and organized by Commissioner Susan Ness, will address a range of spectrum management issues although an agenda has not been set. David Siddall, a legal adviser to Ness who announced the spectrum summit at the Personal Communications Industry Association’s annual meeting in Orlando, Fla., last month, said the commissioner would like to hold the event during the last week of January.
Possible topics for discussion include spectrum flexibility, the role of standards in spectrum allocation and the application of spectrum auctions in assigning wireless licenses in private and common carrier mobile radio services.
At nearly every turn, spectrum policy is undergoing change and intense review. The potential for a sweeping transformation of spectrum policy is real. But before that happens, a fierce debate will occur on what the role of the government should or should not be in overseeing the airwaves.
Increasingly, free marketeers are winning out. The “public interest” standard that has served as a guiding light for federal regulators since the enactment of the Communications Act of 1934 is beginning to be eclipsed by “the highest and best use” calling card of spectrum auctions.
Spectrum is no longer an esoteric subject; it is sexy stuff worth lots of money to a nation trying to reduce a debilitating budget deficit.
Catalysts for change are coming from all directions.
In 1993, a Democratic-controlled Congress authorized spectrum auctions with backing from President Clinton. Previously, the Republican Reagan and Bush administrations were rebuffed by Democrats every time competitive bidding proposals were put forth.
Now that FCC Chairman Reed Hundt, a Clinton appointee, has raised more than $8 billion largely from selling narrowband and broadband personal communications services licenses, the new GOP-led Congress and the Democratic White House claim credit for the success of auctions and want $14 billion more from license sales during the next seven years.
So far, corporate giants like AT&T Corp., Sprint Corp. and the Baby Bells have been the biggest spenders and prime beneficiaries of auctions. They will be the ones bringing consumers next-generation paging and pocket telephone services in coming years.
Companies that operate internal private wireless systems now fear they, too, will be forced to pay for their licenses. They prefer user fees over auctions.
Republican leaders in Congress considered and then declined to force broadcasters to pay for digital TV channels valued at nearly $40 billion.
Think tanks like the conservative Heritage Foundation and the libertarian Progress & Freedom Foundation and futuristic techno-wonks like George Gilder believe spectrum policy is due for a complete overhaul.
For Gilder, digital technology-Code Division Multiple Access in particular-dictates a total hands-off spectrum policy.
For others, auctions are only the beginning. That is, the beginning of the end of the FCC. Free market purists argue the government should get out of the business of deciding how radio frequencies should be used and who should use them and close up shop as competition replaces regulation.
“They still believe it’s their spectrum,” Adam Thierer, a fellow in economic policy at the Heritage Foundation. “We need to ensure fully flexible and perpetual spectrum property rights in both current and future spectrum allocations.” He criticized Congress for failing to auction digital TV channels, a position supported by the paging and cellular telephone industries.
Interference problems? Let the courts figure them out, say free market proponents.
It has been pointed out, however, that conservatives advocating the position are some of the biggest critics of U.S. District Judge Harold Greene’s continued oversight of the 1982 consent decree that broke up AT&T Corp. and put various business restrictions on the seven regional Bell telephone companies the break-up created.
The FCC, for its part, has been put in the position of defining its spectrum policy in such a way as to defend its existence.
Thus, the agency asserts the government has a role in spectrum management but has been willing to gradually integrate some market-driven reforms.
A new General Wireless Communications Service will put 25 megahertz on the auction block next summer for bidders to buy and do largely what they want with it.
At its open meeting this week, the FCC will propose giving commercial wireless carriers more leeway to offer fixed services on their frequencies.
