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FCC Postpones Spectrum Auction Until 2016

Posted by Soulskill on from the no-extra-spectrum-for-you dept.

An anonymous reader writes: 2014 was supposed to be the year broadcasters would be allowed to sell off their unused spectrum to mobile carriers. That got pushed back to 2015 in December, and now the Federal Communications Commission has bumped it to 2016 in the face of a lawsuit from the National Association of Broadcasters. The FCC says the legal briefs aren't even due until January 2015, and it will take them until the middle of the year to review the documents and respond in court. The delay is just fine with the NAB, but probably bad news for anyone hoping that spectrum would help to improve mobile communications in the U.S. any time soon.

20 of 31 comments (clear)

  1. Why is it a 'sale' ? by oneiros27 · · Score: 1

    As spectrum so important, why are they sold at all? Shouldn't they be leased out, so it can be revoked if it's not being used for a given number of years, to put it in the hands of companies that aren't just going to sit on them to keep it out of the hands of their competitors, or other actions not in the public interest?

    And as they mention IRS tax issues (I assume for capital gains), why aren't they at least subject to property taxes? (although, that probably just gives companies more incentive to set up shell corporations in tax havens)

    --
    Build it, and they will come^Hplain.
    1. Re:Why is it a 'sale' ? by Lunix+Nutcase · · Score: 3

      I don't get your point. A spectrum auction is where the FCC sells licenses to use bands of spectrum. I don't know where you got the false notion that these companies owned the spectrum itself.

    2. Re:Why is it a 'sale' ? by ZipK · · Score: 1

      I don't get your point. A spectrum auction is where the FCC sells licenses to use bands of spectrum. I don't know where you got the false notion that these companies owned the spectrum itself.

      From the opening sentence: "2014 was supposed to be the year broadcasters would be allowed to sell off their unused spectrum to mobile carriers." The use of "their" suggests that "broadcasters" possess and will be allowed to sell off unused spectrum.

    3. Re:Why is it a 'sale' ? by Gr8Apes · · Score: 2

      It's revocable monopoly ownership. Once licensed, only violations of the license result in the purchasing entity losing license to that spectrum. For the rest, the purchasing entity owns the spectrum and can do with it what they want, within terms of the license. At least that's how I understand it. Maybe the new licenses are worded differently, but that's how the old ones effectively were written.

      --
      The cesspool just got a check and balance.
    4. Re:Why is it a 'sale' ? by Lunix+Nutcase · · Score: 2

      Yes, they possess the license to exclusively use the spectrum. This sale was about broadcasters selling rights to use the unused parts of their licensed spectrum.

    5. Re:Why is it a 'sale' ? by mirix · · Score: 3, Interesting

      The licenses are transferable, and give the right to use the spectrum. How is that different than the spectrum itself? It's a fiction so of course it's a license and not the 'physical' aether.

      The problem for me is, instead of a lease going back to the state, which then leases the spectrum to someone else... some firm profits handsomely from selling a license for a fictional monopoly on a common good. That's kinda fucked.

      I absolutely understand the need for licensing, else there would be mayhem. But it could be done in a better way. I guess it's the same idea as $1M taxi medallions. Those should be leased and non-transferable too.

      --
      Sent from my PDP-11
    6. Re:Why is it a 'sale' ? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      The point of the auction is that private transactions of spectrum licenses are just infeasible. Otherwise people would just trade and that's it. The government has nothing to do with it except facilitating transfer and giving the spectrum to who really makes the best use of it.

    7. Re:Why is it a 'sale' ? by ZipK · · Score: 2

      Which re-begs the question of why licensees should be allowed to resell the spectrum at all. As the OP asked, why shouldn't licensees return unused spectrum to the actual owners, us, and we can have our representatives, the government, re-license it and pocket the money. Why are licensees profiting in a secondary market for public resources?

    8. Re:Why is it a 'sale' ? by Dorianny · · Score: 1

      With no expiration clause and the ability to resell the license than in effect the license holder owns the rights to the spectrum. Licenses should expire after 50 years, carry yearly fees and not be transferable, this way the spectrum can be re-utilized for services in the public's best interests.

    9. Re:Why is it a 'sale' ? by Cyberax · · Score: 1

      Why should we create markets just to make some leeches richer? Trading spectrum doesn't generate more of it, it doesn't force more efficient usage and it gives monopoly power to several large players.

    10. Re:Why is it a 'sale' ? by Rockoon · · Score: 1

      As the OP asked, why shouldn't licensees return unused spectrum to the actual owners

      If the choice was to keep the license for the spectrum and pretend to need it, or magnanimously give up the license for no benefit, they would do the first not the second.

      I dont understand why you willingly and intentionally refuse to understand this.

      --
      "His name was James Damore."
    11. Re:Why is it a 'sale' ? by servant · · Score: 1

      Because we, through our rep's (the govt) have given them the right to do it as part of the license we agreed to when we first licensed the spectrum portions to them. Yes, we are changing the rules mid stream in general, but this written 'in stone' license seems to be harder to change due to the possible monetary consequences to current licensees.

      --
      ... "When you pry the source from my cold dead hands."
  2. Spectrum auction by wonkey_monkey · · Score: 1

    That's okay, plenty more on eBay.

    http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/48K-...

    --
    systemd is Roko's Basilisk.
  3. Bad news for OTA folks by speedlaw · · Score: 3, Insightful

    The "spectrum" the Govt wants to auction is "found" by "repacking" the remaining TV over the air broadcasters. Among the great idea are multiple stations using one channel (So we get two crappy streams on one frequency instead of the pretty HDTV we were promised) and other stations going back to VHF-Lo (RF channels 2-5) which don't work all that well without big antennas and have issues with interference and digital. The NAB is unhappy because the "re pack" means that many stations will lose broadcast area. If you are a cable co, or a broadband provider, OF COURSE you will want to do anything you can to cripple the "cut the cord" folks....you can't ban OTA broadcast, but you can cripple it. There is debate as to how much money the broadcasters will get in compensation, but there clearly isn't anyone looking out for the OTA viewer. I like some broadband too but this is the new titan fighting the old titan...

    1. Re:Bad news for OTA folks by Bite+The+Pillow · · Score: 1

      Which side of your agreement are wired providers on?

      Do you intend to subsidize the old folks in getting a wireless plan and converter to replace the DTV converter we just subsidized?

      Come back when you have thought this through.

    2. Re:Bad news for OTA folks by rsmith-mac · · Score: 1

      There is debate as to how much money the broadcasters will get in compensation, but there clearly isn't anyone looking out for the OTA viewer. I like some broadband too but this is the new titan fighting the old titan...

      The problem is that both OTA TV and mobile communications are good - but not great - uses of limited wireless spectrum, so you have to weigh the pros and cons of each rather than having one or another that's an obvious better use.

      OTA is a one-to-many transmission, making efficient use of the spectrum, but the transmitters and receivers are basically fixed devices. Mobile communication on the other hand is truly mobile, but it's one-to-one transmission. Neither is the ideal use case - one-to-many mobile - so you have to pick between one-to-many or mobile.

      But the fact of the matter is that because TVs are fixed device wired is a perfectly viable alternative for them. Whereas a wired cell phone wouldn't be nearly as useful. So you won't find much support for OTA given the fact that most people find mobile communications more useful than OTA television.

    3. Re:Bad news for OTA folks by antdude · · Score: 1

      I wonder if that means we will lose OTA TV eventually. :( OTA rocks!

      --
      Ant(Dude) @ Quality Foraged Links (AQFL.net) & The Ant Farm (antfarm.ma.cx / antfarm.home.dhs.org).
  4. Re:I don't accept TFS's this short by wiredlogic · · Score: 1

    Who is this Bennett you speak of?

    // ==UserScript==
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    var bad_articles = $("article").has("div:contains('Bennett Haselton')");
    bad_articles.remove ();

    --
    I am becoming gerund, destroyer of verbs.
  5. It doesn't really matter. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    AT&T and Verizon would have just bought it all up and squatted on it so that nobody else would be able to use it and drain business away from their duopoly.

  6. This is also a way to reduce broadcast diversity by Chronos56 · · Score: 2

    The smaller Low power stations will likely lose their license or be forced to move to another frequency with no financial compensation. As far as the Low Power stations are concerned this auction is a very bad idea.

    Its the LP stations that provide minority content.

    The LP I engineer for provides Spanish and Haitian content to our communities, many LP stations around the country provide similar content.

    As for cell phone users this is not that much spectrum and will make little difference.

    This is just a big land grab by the big cell phone carriers, welcome to the 19th century.