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Groups Urge FCC To Create Wireless Broadband Competition

April 10, 2007

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The Federal Communications Commission should use its upcoming auction of the valuable 700 MHz spectrum to create high-speed Internet service that will be a true competitor to broadband services offered by telephone and cable companies, according to a group of public interest and consumer groups.

In a series of three filings with the FCC, the six-member Save Our Spectrum coalition said the Commission should structure the auction of the spectrum, and the service offered over it, so that the service will be operated in a non-discriminatory manner, under an open access structure following auction rules that will allow for greater participation than simply the incumbents.

The members of the coalition are: Public Knowledge, Media Access Project, Consumers Union, Consumer Federation of America, New America Foundation and Free Press.

In the filing on non-discrimination issues coordinated by Public Knowledge and New America Foundation, the coalition said the Commission should "establish a service rule for broadband services operating in the 700 MHz band that protects the consumer's right to use any equipment, content, application or service on a non-discriminatory basis without interference from the network provider."

This recommendation would make certain the landmark 1968 Carterfone decision allowing consumers to attach devices ranging from fax machines to computers to the telephone network, and would implement Net Neutrality principles of non-discrimination.

The open-access filing, coordinated by Consumers Union, argued that broadband deployment has advanced in other countries that allow competitors access to telephone-company networks.

"It is imperative that we learn the lessons of the wireline market and make the appropriate policy corrections in the launch of the most promising wireless broadband markets," the filing said. "Wireless broadband has not been a useful 'third pipe' and will not be in the near future if this spectrum is auctioned to the very same vertically integrated telephone and cable incumbents that dominate the wireline market."

In the proposed auction rules, a filing coordinated by the Media Access Project, the coalition recommended the Commission offer the new spectrum at the wholesale level, and should "either prohibit wireline and large wireless incumbents from bidding, or require them to bid through structurally separate affiliates."

The Commission should also guard against the possibility that winners of the spectrum auction not keep the spectrum from being used by not constructing new services, the groups said.

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