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FCC Says TV Airwaves Being Sold For Wireless Use Are Worth $86.4 Billion (reuters.com)
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Reuters: The U.S. Federal Communications Commission said on Wednesday the price of 126 MHz of television airwaves taken from broadcasters to be sold for wireless use in an ongoing auction is $86.4 billion. The FCC disclosed the price in a statement after completing the first part of an auction to repurpose low-frequency wireless spectrum relinquished by television broadcasters. The so-called "broadcast incentive" spectrum auction is one of the commission's most complex and ambitious to date. In this round, called a reverse auction, broadcasters competed to give up spectrum to the FCC for the lowest price. In the next stage, the forward auction, wireless and other companies will bid to buy the airwaves for the highest price. If wireless companies are unwilling to pay $86.4 billion, the FCC may have to hold another round of bidding by broadcasters and sell less spectrum than had been expected, analysts said. The Wall Street Journal points out that $86.4 billion is more than the market cap of T-Mobile and Spring combined. It's roughly double the amount raised in the last FCC auction, where ATT spent $18.2 billion and Verizon spent $10.4 billion. It's highly likely we'll see multiple rounds stretching into 2017 that will eventually match the supply with the demand.
Unlike the US and EU, we Canadians are smart enough not to sell valuable resources like our wireless spectrum to the highest bidder. It's yet another sign of the problems that will plague these troubled nations going forward. The US and EU will collapse soon and everyone will see the failed states for what they are. The Brexit and Puerto Rico bankruptcies were just the beginning. Canada will be the next dominant superpower when the US and EU fall apart.
Why this is being sold, rather than leased?
Shouldn't this just be like a 5-15 year lease to the spectrum for whatever amount the companies are willing to bid?
'Sale' sounds rather permanent, and divvying up a limited resource, like the airwaves even for ridiculous sums of money like 90 billion, seems rather anti-competitive to me.
Go forth and vote
Bob Dole was on my primary ballot this year. I remain suspicious. I think they are trying to clear out old ballot inventory.
Why are we selling these airwaves? We should be renting them by the month. This prevents the wastefulness and hoarding of resources by a company that never plans to use them. What if some company buys them all up and never uses them in hopes that they double in price in the next 10 years due to scarcity?
I said nearly the exact same thing as a solution for keeping the IPV4 address space from running out, as most of the space is currently being hoarded by large organizations that don't need full Class A blocks:
https://slashdot.org/comments....
Good morning. I'm here to defend the FCC. I'm not sure against whom or what... but god dammit... I'm defending them. Thank you for your time.
Why not ?
Meshing routers could cover large areas cheaply !
This is my opinion based on what little I know and understand of the rumors and lies Thanks, Randal
Actually, the people have access to several pieces of spectrum in the
UnLicensed bands. Perhaps you have used WiFi or HAM radio?
It's gonna be whoever uses wireless service, which is basically everyone.
1. Mobile phone operator pays the FCC 86 billion to establish a monopoly.
2. Consumer is forced to purchase mobile service only from operator (who has a monopoly enforced by the government).
3. Profit!! For the mobile phone operator (who has no competition) also
I think a lot of people in rural areas got a raw deal from this digital TV signal upgrade, because it makes it impossible to pick up a lot of stations you used to be able to tune in with the old analog system.
Where we live, for example? We're about a 70 minute drive away from Washington DC (with many people in town commuting to/from the DC area daily for work), yet you can't pick up the DC network stations over the air. (Well, you *might* get 1 or 2 if you aim the right antenna just the right way -- but you won't get the number of them you did before things went digital.)
I never understood why repeaters weren't implemented to boost the digital OTA signals, to ensure good coverage? Couldn't a piece of the funds received by selling off the old frequencies go to this?
What area does spring cover? Ive never heard of them before. Then again maybe they ment sprint.
Minimum threshold fixed. Thanks!
$1 million * seconds_per_day
I can see the hidden patterns.... But what do they MEAN?
Just remember, this is the FCC that gives the people exactly 0% of the designated broadcast spectrum. The FCC that is owned, lock stock and barrel by commercial interests.
I get television broadcast, cellular service, AM/FM/HD radio, wifi, bluetooth, and a whole gaggle of other stuff that I can take for granted because it isn't jammed by all the electronics in my house, including the power supplies to all that stuff. If you want to bitch about not being able to hear the term cunt-shit on the local top-40 station, I'm what you would call a gifted-idiot so I understand you there, but I'm not really sure why they're some enemy to hate in this context. If you think the United States would be better off without them then you should get on a dial-up connection going so I can send you a streaming documentary to watch.
"I like to lick butts!" by MobileTatsu-NJG (#32700246) (Score:5, Informative)
And guess what gets the most quality content? The internet, the one thing not stifled by the FCC selling off monopolies for highest price.
Broadcast TV and AM/FM radio is full of braindead garbage for people who go at a slow pace.... so exactly for idiotic nimrods such as yourself.
You're exactly the mentally slow paced citizen that likes taxi service over Uber, because the government enabled your doo-dads so that you can jerk off over the latest American Idol.
OK that means that the mobile phone companies think can hoard and monopolize the spectrum such that they extort far greater that $200 per person just to pay for the spectrum. That's a significant amount on your bill thanks to the spectrum auction.
There's gotta be a better way.
Today I learned that the key ingredients to good content are nudity and profanity. Torchwood ftw!
Actually, no, the best outcome for everyone would be a superintelligent AI doing the smartest decision for us, and also doing all the hard work. That is true because human nature made it so (we want to have fun, not to spend dozens of hours per week toiling away in cramped offices).
Ezekiel 23:20
You're more of an idiot for raising a complete straw man, but you were writing as an idiot, so points for you anyway.
The post you're responding to pointed out that the FCC doesn't provide public access to the broadcast spectrum. It's 100% correct. There's no section of the AM or FM or television broadcast bands that you, as a member of the public, are allowed to access with a range of over a few tens of feet, even using non-other-channel-interfering, type-accepted, inspected and validated at your own cost, installations.
If you're going to put on your idiot-hat, that's the issue brought up, and that's the behavior you need to defend. Of course, defending it would still make you an idiot, but you're already there, so I presume that's no barrier to your blathering.
The smartest decision for you may be in conflict with the smartest decision for me.
The FCC doesn't own them, so we will use them whenever we like.
Thus spoke Pareto.
Ezekiel 23:20