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Wireless Carriers In Huge Washington Lobby Fight Over Spectrum Auction

Posted by timothy on from the rent-seeking-on-display dept.

First time accepted submitter techpolicy (3586897) writes "The big four wireless carriers are spending millions of dollars to hire professors, fund Washington think tanks and to meet with the Federal Communications Commission to try to convince the agency to write rules for an upcoming auction of spectrum that favor them, according to an article posted by the Center for Public Integrity in Washington. The frequencies are needed to bolster or build out their nationwide networks — and this kind of low-band spectrum won't be up for sale for a very long time. The biggest fight is over a rule that would limit how much AT&T and Verizon can get of these valuable frequencies. How it plays out will determine who has control over your smartphone."

27 of 51 comments (clear)

  1. Guaranteed... by WallaceAndGromit · · Score: 4, Insightful

    "How it plays out will determine who has control over your smartphone."

    Guaranteed it won't be me.

    --
    Name: Mr. Anon E Mouse; SSN: 555-55-5555
    1. Re: Guaranteed... by Laconique · · Score: 1

      It's been a painfully helpful thing, like an ice bath for a fever (maybe?) to See my beloved Android system (software and hardware) lose its aura that you can trust stuff because it's free and open source. I still prefer it to alternatives. But I confess that I was naive and went along with the worship of open source. I just don't think I control my phone anymore

    2. Re:Guaranteed... by VTBlue · · Score: 1

      I consider my smartphone to be essentially an extension of my penis. Does that mean that this will determine who has control of my penis?

      The FCC needs to get out of our bedrooms! The government has no business coming between a man's penis and the wireless carrier that services his porn habits.

    3. Re:Guaranteed... by ComputersKai · · Score: 1

      The FCC can do things? Oh wait...don't they outsource all their work to the NSA?

    4. Re:Guaranteed... by clodeboutique · · Score: 1

      Hotel Murah Di Jakarta : http://www.emkatupang.com/hote...

  2. Shorten the Purchase Horizon by retroworks · · Score: 4, Interesting

    They don't have to auction it forever, exhausting future generations rights. It should not be worse than selling Grimms to Disney. Shorten the rights, let our kids have a say.

    --
    Gently reply
    1. Re:Shorten the Purchase Horizon by DarwinSurvivor · · Score: 1

      They don't have to auction it forever, exhausting future generations rights. It should not be worse than selling Grimms to Disney. Shorten the rights, let our kids have a say.

      Selling implies they paid something.

    2. Re:Shorten the Purchase Horizon by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2

      They should only RENT the spectrum. Problem solved. Behave badly? Your lease is forfeit. No extra rulemaking needed. The frequencies belong to the taxpayers. Why give them to corporations in perpetuity?

    3. Re:Shorten the Purchase Horizon by DarwinSurvivor · · Score: 1

      Actually, I was referring to Disney and the Grimm stories. Next time try reading the entire post.

    4. Re:Shorten the Purchase Horizon by guises · · Score: 2

      It's never forever, these agreements always have time limits on them. Usually ten years with the option for renewal. Here's the factsheet for the big auction from 2008, if you recall that one.

  3. Make em share by Nethemas+the+Great · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Force them to come up with protocols that enable sharing of spectrum and be done with the BS turf wars.

    --
    Two of my imaginary friends reproduced once ... with negative results.
    1. Re:Make em share by symbolset · · Score: 1

      Wow. That's brilliant.

      --
      Help stamp out iliturcy.
  4. Preview of paid research c/o Canadian Telcos by beckett · · Score: 5, Informative

    Canadian telcos have also been busy buying university research.

    Canada has only 3 large telco companies, and they all work together. they do wonderful free market things like raise their prices simultanously last week..

    Jeffery Church from University of Alberta seems to have taken a pro-incumbent stance in his research. he has been presenting this research at conferences indicating canada's incumbents are playing fair. read the paper here. he's also been busily writing pro-incumbent columns for the National Post.

    Dwayne Winseck from Carleton University has been calling bullshit on this bought research, and you can hear his criticism of the paper and the comm industry on his CanadaLand podcast interview.

  5. Damn America if you will, by rmdingler · · Score: 1
    but recognize that most of the bribery here is above board and in full daylight. Most opf our people are too busy with their busy little lives to complain, but it's right there.

    Political corruption always exists. The overall effect it will have on people and their private lives is directly linked to government interference in the markets.

    If the big players (ATT & Verizon) are allowed to increase their stranglehold on market share, we the people will be the end result losers.

    --
    Happiness in intelligent people is the rarest thing I know.

    Ernest Hemingway

  6. re-auction them every 5 years by stenvar · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I think companies should simply forced to face an auction for all their wireless frequencies every five years. That includes radio, TV, cell phone, etc.

    In addition, a large chunk should be reserved for unlicensed use. I think WiFi has shown that that kind of use works very well, and more spectrum for that would be nice.

    1. Re:re-auction them every 5 years by BradleyUffner · · Score: 2

      Wouldn't that cause all kind of chaos with existing hardware? Physical antennas can only receive specific frequency ranges. Changing frequencies every 5 years would force you to buy all new hardware.

    2. Re:re-auction them every 5 years by alen · · Score: 2

      NYC i have 40 wifi networks in range of me. it's so bad that my xbox and apple TV are connected by cat5 cable to my router. otherwise its constant disconnections and long buffering times for netflix during the peak time

    3. Re:re-auction them every 5 years by alen · · Score: 1

      the frequencies would be the same. it would just be a way to get some companies to pay more taxes and just switch which frequencies they use

      good idea

    4. Re:re-auction them every 5 years by SuluSulu · · Score: 1

      If you actually did that it would put a huge cost burden on the customers. The carriers would have to set aside a large portion of their earnings every year to ensure that they would have enough just to keep the spectrum that they have let alone expand. Not to mention that if they lost an auction they would also loose most if not everything that they invested in their network. The companies that survive would be the ones that are able to squeeze the most money out of their customers and are the best at making back room deals with their competitors. And it wouldn't be the small companies. It would be far better at this point if the FCC just gave the spectrum to some of the smaller carriers so that they could expand their markets and offer more choice to customers. Or just nationalize the network and let companies resell service.

    5. Re:re-auction them every 5 years by stenvar · · Score: 2

      If you actually did that it would put a huge cost burden on the customers. The carriers would have to set aside a large portion of their earnings every year to ensure that they would have enough just to keep the spectrum that they have let alone expand

      I think that cost would be factored into the bids, which would simply be much lower. If you rent something for 5 years you pay a lot less than if you rent something for an expected 100 years.

      Not to mention that if they lost an auction they would also loose most if not everything that they invested in their network

      Again, that would be factored into the bids. Keep in mind that people who buy new spectrum also face a huge investment in order to recoup what they paid.

      In the end, I think 5 year bidding would work pretty well: prices would stay about the same or get cheaper (due to increased competition), and equipment would likely become more interoperable.

      None of the objections you raise seem to stand up to scrutiny. But I'd be interested in a more solid economic analysis of short term vs long term spectrum auctions.

    6. Re:re-auction them every 5 years by hobarrera · · Score: 1

      That would be very sensible and not at all capitalist. It'll never happen in USA!

    7. Re:re-auction them every 5 years by stenvar · · Score: 1

      That would be very sensible and not at all capitalist. It'll never happen in USA!

      Actually, that is exactly the kind of mechanism capitalism and free markets demand.

      The problem is that both major parties are significantly anti-capitalist and anti-free market, the Democrats virulently so, but even the Republicans. Just look at the farm bill vote to see examples of blatant political corruption and anti-market activity. Nobody who voted for that bill should get away with pretending to favor free markets, liberty, or meritocracy.

  7. Re:Has anyone noticed Beta STILL Sucks? by byornski · · Score: 1

    +1

  8. Blame Ronald Reagan by Required+Snark · · Score: 1
    Before Reagan there used to be something called "anit-trust". When some player in the private sector got too big, they would be "broken up" in order to insure "competition". That was in the old days where the US economy had something called "capitalism".

    I know this sounds like a fantasy to many younger Slashdot readers, but it really did happen. Besides "capitalism" there were other obsolete ideas like "privacy", "justice", "voting rights", "free press" and "free travel". I'd encourage you to look this up, but then you might get on a list where suddenly you couldn't get on an airplane and they would never tell you why and you could never get off the list.

    --
    Why is Snark Required?
  9. Never sell something valuable by sgt+scrub · · Score: 1

    Selling things is stupid when you can rent it. The smart move would be to lease it out to companies that want to act as service providers. It gives more control to us, gives "our kids a say", and makes money until it is obsolete.

    --
    Having to work for a living is the root of all evil.
  10. Re:dumb idea by Hamsterdan · · Score: 2

    Antennas are optimized for a frequency range. You can't change their size via software.

    --
    I've got better things to do tonight than die.
  11. Short-term lease, and give royalties to everyone by Paul+Fernhout · · Score: 1

    Like Alaska does with oil and gas royalties: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A...

    Otherwise it ends up being mostly another giveaway of monopoly to the wealthy who pay a small fraction of the true value ...

    --
    A 21st century issue: the irony of technologies of abundance in the hands of those still thinking in terms of scarcity.