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The FCC Mulls its Chances of Mandating a Free Wireless Service for Everybody
The FCC is reportedly considering a plan that would require free wireless service from the winner of a future block of auctioned spectrum.
In a report featured in The Wall Street Journal the FCC is reportedly mulling over its chances of mandating a portion of an upcoming wireless auction be apportioned for free wireless services to all.
At this point there are few details worked out about what block of spectrum the FCC might choose for this idea, but the FCC, in facing reports that the US has dropped from 4th to 15th in the percentage of broadband subscribers, apparently feels some urgency to do something about it.
Interestingly this plan is very similar to a proposal put forth last year by M2Z Networks, which was shot down by the FCC. The primary difference was that M2Z wanted to be gifted the spectrum and pay a 5 percent fee out of revenues back to the FCC in lieu of auction fees. Not many major carriers favor spectrum gifting as they had to pay for most of their spectrum so the lobby is strong to oppose such plans.
Still, the notion of requiring an auction winner to build out 50 percent of its network within four years and 95 percent within 10 years appeals to me, especially if the FCC would actually enforce its build-out requirement.
The recent D Block portion of the 700 MHz auction (which failed to sell) does offer some clues of what private industry thinks about mandated requirements for publicly bid for spectrum.
Tim Sanders
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