IP Democracy: FCC's Martin Promises Open Broadband Wireless

USA Today’s Leslie Cauley has this page one article on the upcoming broadband wireless auction rules and FCC Chairman Kevin Martin’s apparent promise to make way for an “open” broadband network.

Under Martin’s proposal, to be circulated in the agency as early as today, mobile services in these airwaves would have to allow consumer choice.

“Whoever wins this spectrum has to provide…truly open broadband network — one that will open the door to a lot of innovative services for consumers,” Martin said in an interview Monday.

What this would mean in practice: “You can use any wireless device and download any mobile broadband application, with no restrictions,” Martin explained. The only exceptions would be software that is illegal or could harm a network.

Over at Public Knowledge, Art Brodsky thinks Martin is playing games. Consumer groups want the auction winners to sell off slices of their spectrum to all qualified comers, ensuring diversity of ownership and a truly “open” broadband wireless world.

This fight is over the rules of the upcoming 700 MHz auction, a draft of which has been prepared by Chairman Martin’s office but not circulated to the other commissioners and certainly not issued publicly. According to an FCC staffer who spoke with Dow Jones News, two blocks of spectrum that are each 11 megahertz in size have been reserved for wireless services that meet Martin’s definition of open access, meaning that the licensees have little or no control over the types of handsets and services that work with their networks.

Google is reportedly encouraged by this block of open access spectrum and is considering bidding on it. (Google says that it is only hearing about Chairman Martin’s proposal through the grapevine, which, in fact, is how these things do work…Martin floats a trial balloon.) However, Frontline Wireless, which has been rising in stature over the past few months, is, apparently, locked out of the bidding because Martin’s office has failed to include certain conditions as part of the rules.

But all of this — Martin’s promise, Public Knowledge’s reaction, Google’s potential bid and Frontline’s shut-out — is wispy stuff indeed. Martin’s office obviously floated the draft rules to test the waters. The final rules, particularly after the other commissioners have weighed in, could be quite different indeed.

Posted by Cynthia Brumfield on July 10, 2007 1:39 PM to IP Democracy