Start Your Engines August 29, 2007
Posted by Grant Seiffert in : Trends, Policy , trackbackEditor’s Note: TIA President Grant Seiffert writes a weekly President’s Message to members in the Network, TIA’s newsletter. This week, we’re running his most recent letters every day, and, starting Thursday, will run his weekly comments in this space. The following is from the August 22nd issue of the Network.
Late last Friday, the FCC set a date, January 16, 2008, for the start of the 700 MHz spectrum auction. It’s a date many in the communications world have anticipated for years — years! — and players in all sectors, from carriers to enterprises, from vendors of all sizes to content providers, can now set their 700 MHz business plans into motion.
It’s true that none of the major players in the auction got the exact regulatory “rulemaking” they wanted — no one did. There was controversy over everything from how much of the spectrum would be set aside for public safety and how that spectrum would be managed to whether winners would have “open access” conditions placed on them. But this new date certain, coupled with the certainty of the rules themselves, set earlier this month, means no more guesswork. Stockholders can be appeased. Spectrum specialists and auction advisors can be brought onto payrolls. Product line release dates can be calibrated. Those awful rumors of Congress pushing back the spectrum transition in order to avoid cutting off their constituents” TV service can finally be laid to rest.
Setting the rules and timeline for the auction is the most important decision the FCC will make this decade, because that 700 MHz spectrum is so powerful. They don’t call it “beachfront” spectrum for nothing.
The FCC aimed to give prospective bidders as much time as possible to make plans and assemble financing while complying with the mandated January 31 start date, and now they’ll have five full months. TIA has always favored regulatory certainty for its members and the industry generally, and few things in Washington are more certain than a fixed date.
This is an auction that lots of players are counting on: Wireless carriers are counting on finally ending dropped calls indoors, vendors are counting on showing off their devices in the powerful new band, public safety is counting on a national first-responder network, and the government is counting on the estimated $10 billion-plus this auction is supposed to put in its coffers. Now, there’s one more thing to count: the days until this powerful new spectrum is being put to use over powerful new networks across the country.
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