And So It Goes August 1, 2007
Posted by ianmartinez in : What's New?, Networking, Policy , trackbackWell, the 700 MHz auction rules are set. Of course there’s lots of chatter throughout the policy world, with everyone weighing in and no one completely satisfied — or completely objective.
My favorite telecom read (and former employer) Communications Daily (subscription only) cited the consensus voting at the FCC, with all 5 commissioners approving the auction rules and only a partial dissent — on open access — by Commissioner McDowell. Commissioner Adelstein called the open access compromise “meaningful, though not perfect.”
CTIA, via MobileCrunch, set the tone, as president Steve Largent said the rulemaking “left us pleased in a number of respects and still concerned in others.” Verizon’s policy blog was notably silent after the auction, but David Fish made the carrier’s position remarkably clear a few days earlier: Open access = bad. This stemmed from some uncertainty about the company’s position in a TechDaily piece the day before.
Gigi Sohn at Public Knowledge called the ruling a “tremendous missed opportunity” but said the opportunity remains to “make lemonade out of lemons” of the compromise ruling. The presence of new policy players (read: Google and Frontline) also changed the landscape, Sohn said:
If the industry has learned anything from the 700 MHz auction, it is that when it comes to getting access to communications networks, avoiding government is not an option. And that realization may forever change how the technology industry plays the Washington game.
Google calls the rules “a sign of real progress at the FCC,” and claimed exactly 50% victory. Michael Arrington of TechCrunch, who supported Google’s position, calls the Commission’s decision “a feeble attempt to stand up to AT&T, Verizon and their army of lobbyists.”
Farhad Manjoo over at Salon — one of my favorite tech bloggers even if I don’t always share his views — seems to split the difference on whether Google won or lost yesterday. Despite some open access and application flexibility, Manjoo says, the auction won’t change the wireless landscape much:
But the FCC did not side with Google on wholesale access. So Google got half of what it wants — people will be able to use whatever devices and whatever programs they want on the 700 MHz band, but it’s unlikely we’ll get new companies moving into that space looking to provide us service. Like today, it’ll be AT&T, Verizon, Sprint, and T-Mobile — and maybe not even all of them.
Ash Dyer over at O’Reilly Emerging Telephony said the FCC’s decision to compromise on open access and forego wholesale:
…forces the carrier to embrace device mobility and access to off-deck content. However, with this rule imposed on only one band of the spectrum, who knows how competitive such a requirement will be.
Now, the auction itself. With questions still looming about who the big bidders and buyers will be, there’s a lot to resolve. At least there will be no shortage of comment.
Update- Chris over at Mobile Diner says Micro-managing competition is never a good idea. Randolph May at Free State Soundation says “that veritable economic theorem that ‘people don’t want to buy a pig in a poke‘ holds true, even for the FCC.”
Save This Page
Google
Yahoo MyWeb
Comments»
no comments yet - be the first?