President Obama put the weight of the Oval Office behind a plan to free up another 500 MHz of spectrum for wireless data services Monday, touting the benefits of the "wireless broadband revolution" as he ordered federal agencies to work together to free more of the airwaves.
"Expanded wireless broadband access will trigger the creation of innovative new businesses, provide cost-effective connections in rural areas, increase productivity, improve public safety, and allow for the development of mobile telemedicine, telework, distance learning, and other new applications that will transform Americans' lives," Obama said in a signed presidential directive.
The directive orders the Commerce department and the Federal Communications Commission to figure out how to free up and repurpose 500 MHz of spectrum over the next 10 years as a way to fight off a "looming" bandwidth crunch. From there the country will "use our American ingenuity to wring abundance from scarcity, by finding ways to use spectrum more efficiently," Obama said.
The proposal isn't unexpected -- the FCC has already promised to make 300 MHz available for auction within the next five years, but the directive symbolically puts the power of the presidency behind the efforts. That's necessary because chunks of the spectrum are already held by various federal agencies, none of which are likely to want to give up any radio turf -- at least not without pressure from above.
The announcement won plaudits both from industry groups and digital rights groups that are more accustomed to sending barbs at one another, than agreeing on policy.
CTIA - The Wireless Association, the trade group for the country's wireless companies, applauded the directive.
"By making spectrum available for auction, the administration will enable the wireless industry to invest billions of dollars to purchase the licensed spectrum, and billions more to build and upgrade the networks that fuel our ‘virtuous cycle’ of innovation," said the group's CEO Steve Largent. This announcement is a win for all Americans as it will drive innovation, investment and job creation, while at the same time providing much needed revenue not only for the U.S. Treasury, but also for a nationwide interoperable Public Safety network.
But the new spectrum will likely revisit the same battles that surrounded the 700 MHz auction in 2008. Namely, what openness rules, if any, should be attached to the auction and what spectrum should be unlicensed open space, such as the space that currently used by Wi-Fi.
"Congress, the White House and the FCC should commit to dedicating a substantial portion of reallocated spectrum to unlicensed usage, in addition to auctioned spectrum," the activist group Free Press said in a statement Monday.
The likely losers in the announcement are television stations, which protest that their use of the spectrum is more efficient than wireless companies.
The FCC is proposing that broadcasters turn over some 120 to 130 MHz of spectrum that would be auctioned off in 2012.
Photo: President Barack Obama checks his BlackBerry as he walks along the Colonnade to the Oval Office, March 18, 2010.
Official White House Photo by Pete Souza
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