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US Wireless Spectrum Auction Raises $44.9 Billion
An anonymous reader writes: The FCC's recent wireless spectrum auction closed on Thursday, and the agency has raked in far more money than anyone expected. Sales totaled $44.89 billion, demonstrating that demand for wireless spectrum is higher than ever. The winners have not yet been disclosed, but the FCC will soon make all bidding activity public. "The money will be used to fund FirstNet, the government agency tasked with creating the nation's first interoperable broadband network for first responders, to finance technological upgrades to our 911 emergency systems, and to contribute over $20 billion to deficit reduction. In addition, the auction brought 65 Megahertz of spectrum to market to fuel our nation's mobile broadband networks. The wireless industry estimates that for every 10 Megahertz of spectrum licensed for wireless broadband, 7,000 American jobs are created and U.S. gross domestic product increases by $1.7 billion."
The wireless industry estimates that for every 10 Megahertz of spectrum licensed for wireless broadband, 7,000 American jobs are created and U.S. gross domestic product increases by $1.7 billion."
Yes, of course they do. That's a nice press release for both the wireless industry, and the politicians they paid for.
"The money will be used to fund FirstNet, the government agency tasked with creating the nation's first interoperable broadband network..."
You could just as well put the money in a pile and burn it. Heck, given the inevitable follow-on costs, burning it would be cheaper...
"...contribute over $20 billion to deficit reduction". Meaning it's going into the general fund, where it will be promptly spent three or four times over, each time with the justification that the expenditure has already been paid for by the wireless auction.
Enjoy life! This is not a dress rehearsal.
As spectrum is a finite resource, why sell it, instead of rent it? It goes up in value each year, so the stuff we sold years ago is now worth MUCH more than we sold it for.
And, since the frequencies are owned by the general public, why the transfer to private corporations, who then hide income offshore? Heck, if the feds put up cell towers and little buildings to house the radios, they could easily earn enough money to fund the government's basic needs for MANY years to come.
Yes, we should give that obviously highly valuable wireless spectrum to cell phone companies for free! Because they will pass those savings directly to us, and not horde the profits for themselves!
One could argue that the Government didn't create the monopolies here, physics did. There's only so much spectrum and it doesn't work if multiple people are trying to use the same frequencies at the same time in the same area.
Unless you can find the political will to separate highly regulated tower operators and the phone carriers (so airtime would be a utility and there would be competition with the carriers), then it's always going to be like this. It could be worse, at least there is some competition in the wireless space. It's not wireline broadband.
I read the internet for the articles.