Groups call for competitive spectrum auction
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New broadband providers should be given a better chance of winning pieces of valuable wireless spectrum to be auctioned by early next year, several groups said Friday.
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The FCC's auction of rights to a huge chunk of radio airwaves invites new players to the telecom game. If Google bids big, it could mean open wireless access for all
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Chairman Kevin Martin supports open spectrum access. The catch is that the spectrum auction rules being floated make it unlikely an open network could ever actually be built.
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The debate heats with some tech companies pushing Congress and the FCC to restrict spectrum use in latest auction.
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Carnegie Mellon professor and telecommunications expert David Farber explains what's at stake in the January 2008 FCC auction of spectrum in the 700-MHz band -- spectrum that Google has expressed interest in.
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(InfoWorld) - In its clearest statement of intent so far, Google said that it will compete in an upcoming wireless spectrum auction --Â if the government agrees to certain rules. On Friday, Google sent a letter to the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC)Â chairman informing him that the company will commit a minimum of $4.6 billion toward the auction, but only if certain conditions are met. Google spelled out those conditions in an earlier filing with the FCC. The billion-dollar commitment could assure the FCC that if it does implement the conditions, it can expect to raise the amount of money it hopes to. "The odds are still against the FCC imposing the conditions Google seeks, but this significantly ups the ante," said Kevin Werbach, an assistant professor of legal studies at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and former counsel for new technology policy with the FCC. Google's proposals are controversial for existing mobile operators, which could decide not to participate in the auction if the rules don't suit them, resulting in potentially less income to the government. On Thursday, Verizon Wireless said that complying with Google's ideas would amount to corporate welfare and bad public policy. The $4.6 billion amount appears to be the figure that Google believes the FCC will require as a minimum price for the spectrum. In its letter to the FCC, Google wrote that it understood that a draft order from the commission had specified that figure. The FCC typically sets a minimum price to sell spectrum; if the minimum isn't met, the agency can cancel the auction. "We're putting consumers' interests first and putting our money where our principles are -- to the tune of $4.6 billion," Chris Sacca, head of special initiatives at Google, wrote on the company's public policy blog. Google says that unless the FCC sets certain rules on the auction, existing large mobile operators will inevitably win the spectrum, and competition in the market will stagnate. In order to prevent that, Google is urging the commission to ensure that end-users can download any applications, services, or content they want. Consumers should also be able to buy a phone and use it on any network. In addition, Google says the winner of the spectrum should be required to allow third parties to resell services over the network on a wholesale basis. Some other groups, such as Frontline Wireless, a company backed by luminaries including former FCC chief Reed Hundt and former Netscape CEO James Barksdale, have proposals similar to Google's. While Google has been vocally urging the FCC to ensure that the spectrum can be used by any device and service, the company has until now hedged on questions about whether or not it plans to bid for the spectrum. The FCC auction for 700-MHz spectrum is expected to happen next year. The frequencies are considered prime for mobile communications because signals sent through them can travel far and can penetrate walls better than higher frequencies. Much of the similar spectrum is already spoken for, so this auction is considered a rare opportunity. In a perhaps related announcement, on Friday U.K., femtocell maker Ubiquisys said that Google has invested in the company. Femtocells are small base stations that can be used in homes or offices to improve mobile phone coverage. Ubiquisys' current products operate over 3G networks.
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Web search leader Google Inc.   said on Friday that it would participate in an upcoming  wireless spectrum auction if the U.S. Federal Communications  Commission added a key condition.
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Bidding remained stalled Tuesday on  a key piece of spectrum in the government's wireless airwaves  auction, prompting concern regulators will have to modify rules  requiring some of it be shared with public safety agencies.
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FCC rules governing the upcoming auction of the 700-MHz spectrum include this requirement: You need a minimum of $4.6 billion, and as much as $10 billion, to place a bid.
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Top bidders put up a total of more than $2.4 billion in the opening round of the Federal Communications Commissionâs auction of coveted U.S. government-owned airwaves.
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Business & money: Â· Auction poses threat to established networksÂ· Ofcom wants spectrum from Vodafone and O2
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AT&amp;T and Verizon Wireless want to go up against other current mobile operators and some possible future competitors, including Google, in next month&#39;s&#160;auction for 700MHz wireless spectrum&#160;around the U.S.The U.S. Federal Communications Commission on Tuesday released lists of accepted and incomplete applications for the auction, in which it will sell licenses to frequencies that are set to be vacated by analog TV stations. It has accepted 96 applications and reported 170 as incomplete. The latter need to be completed by Jan. 4.AT&amp;T and Verizon are not surprise entrants but are the country&#39;s biggest mobile operators. If either carrier won a portion of the spectrum that has been designated for use by any device and any service, it would have to open up its network more than any big U.S. operator ever has. Verizon has already unveiled part of a plan to further open its network.They were on the list of incomplete applications, along with smaller mobile operators Alltel and MetroPCS. Cable operator Cox Communications, an archrival of the telecommunications giants, is also preparing an application. And cellular technology giant Qualcomm, which is already building a mobile entertainment network on vacated TV channels, is also gearing up to bid. Would-be bidders with incomplete applications have until Jan. 4 to complete their paperwork.Google earlier this year&#160;offered to participate in the auction&#160;in return for the FCC imposing open-network requirements. The booming Internet company&#39;s involvement could drive up bids all around, helping the government reap its hoped-for $10 billion payday for the spectrum.&#160;Google&#39;s application&#160;has already been accepted, the FCC said Tuesday. So has that of Towerstream, a wireless broadband provider to businesses.One surprise applicant yet to complete its papers is oil giant Chevron.Participation by Chevron in the auction comes &#8220;out of the blue,&#8221; said analyst Jack Gold of J. Gold Associates. However, oil companies and utilities are big wireless users, so he can see why Chevron might be interested.Chevron, like Google, is unlikely to actually build a network, though, he said. &#8220;I can see them potentially winning but then becoming landlords, renting it out,&#8221; he said. For both companies, that decision wouldn&#8217;t be based on the cost of building a network but on the experience required: Neither company has any history of constructing and operating a wireless network, a complicated undertaking.Also Tuesday, the agency extended the Dec. 28 deadline for upfront payments in the auction to Jan. 4 and pushed back a mock auction until Jan. 22. The auction itself is set to begin Jan. 24.Nancy Gohring, in Seattle, contributed to this report.
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(InfoWorld) - Police and fire organizations called on the U.S. Congress to give them more radio spectrum for communications interoperability than the 24MHz they're due to get in early 2009. Representatives of the International Association of Fire Chiefs and the International Association of Chiefs of Police on Thursday told a U.S. Senate committee that they need an additional 30MHz of spectrum. The government is scheduled to auction spectrum to commercial users as U.S. television stations abandon the upper 700MHz spectrum band in February 2009, under a law passed last year. The additional spectrum would help public safety agencies deploy broadband communications systems that would fix the radio interoperability problems that plagued emergency workers following the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, said Charles Werner, fire chief for Charlottsville, Virginia. Congress must act before the spectrum is auctioned to private companies in the next year, he said. "I encourage Congress to take advantage of this very limited, one-time opportunity," Werner said. "We cannot suggest too strongly the urgent and identified need for broadband capability that public safety can use with assurance that it will work when needed, be available when needed, and is affordable." But some members of the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee questioned the plan to put the additional 30MHz of spectrum into a public safety broadband trust. The new spectrum plan, first advanced by Cyren Call Communications last April, could potentially cost the government billions of dollars in lost auction revenue, said Senator Ted Stevens, an Alaska Republican. The committee, in its DTV (digital television) transition bill, budgeted at least $10 billion to be raised by the spectrum auctions, with $1 billion going to fund emergency communications interoperability efforts. The Cyren Call plan is "impossible for us to do fiscally," Stevens said. Stevens' criticism echoed the High Tech DTV Coalition, a group of technology vendors, whichÂ on Tuesday called on the Senate to stick to the original spectrum plan. Cyren Call Chairman Morgan O'Brien said the company's plan calls for the broadband trust to raise $5 billion from private investors to pay for the 30MHz of spectrum. Private investors would pay for expensive public safety broadband networks instead of Congress or local governments, he said. Nearly all public safety organizations support the broadband trust concept, O'Brien added. "This is a crying out for help," he said. "We're sending men and women into dangerous situations every day knowing their devices are inferior." But the spectrum auctions could raise billions of dollars more than what the Cyren Call plan offers to pay, Stevens said. And Steve Largent, president and CEO of CTIA, a trade group representing wireless carriers, questioned whether the broadband trust would find enough investors to fund a broadband wireless rollout for public safety, especially in rural areas. Other senators suggested alternative approaches to the Cyren Call plan. Senator John Sununu, a New Hampshire Republican, suggested that public safety agencies could better use the 25MHz of spectrum they already have. Senator Maria Cantwell, a Washington state Democrat, said public safety agencies in her state and elsewhere are finding success using existing spectrum with radio over IPÂ devices. This "boot-strap" approach using open standards and radio over IP could cost as little as $300 million across the U.S. as opposed to an average of about $1 billion per state using other equipment, said David Billstrom, chairman and CEO of public safety consulting group National Interop and a volunteer firefighter. Â
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Presidential candidate John Edwards is urging the FCC to make it easier for small companies to acquire wireless spectrum when it goes to auction next year.
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Within weeks, the U.S. Federal Communications Commission is expected to set conditions for the auction of the most valuable wireless spectrum still available in the U.S.
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Wireless carriers planning to offer next-generation wireless services have bid $13.9 billion in a spectrum license auction that ended Monday, the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) said.
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Several companies have challengedÂ spectrum auction rulesÂ recently set by the U.S. Federal Communications Commission, with Frontline Wireless protesting that the auction of the 700MHz band to be auctioned in January could shut out small bidders.