Last week, Google said it was not entirely thrillled by Kevin Martin’s proposals on what to do with freed-up wireless spectrum in the 700 MHz band. Now it has put its thoughts into a letter sent to the FCC, in which it says that the auction as Martin envisages it will not increase competition in the broaband market. The letter was also signed by a host of other companies, including Ebay’s Skype and Frontline Wireless, as well as public interest groups like the Consumers Union, says Dow Jones (via CNN).
At issue here is the idea of wholesale access: Google and others believe that whoever wins the spectrum auction should be required to offer space to operators to also run services. They argue that this is the only way to ensure true competition in the broadband space. But although the FCC Chairman believes that, in the name of competition, the spectrum should be open to any device and any application, he also thinks that it should be sold in big blocks, and does not include any specifics about how to allow for new entrant wireless broadband operators to use it (if at all). This effectively would mean that a single operator would ultimately be the one to decide which devices and which services would be able to run on its network.
Reed Hundt, a former FCC Chairman and now vice chairman of Frontline Wireless (one of Google’s co-signatories on the letter), argues in a detailed posting on VentureBeat that the current proposals “reflect a significant bias against entrepreneurship.” Indeed, the $10 billion price tag that Martin has proposed for the spectrum–if the auction doesn’t meet this price, the sale is off–rules out almost anyone apart from incumbents (and Google, if it’s feeling bullish) from taking part in the sale process anyway.
The FCC is due to decide on the matter by early August.
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