Every Federal Communications Commission Chairman has one or two legacy-defining moments in his tenure. For Clinton FCC Chair (and PK Board member) Reed Hundt, it was pushing through the Children's Television programming rules and starting the transition to Digital TV. For the first George W. Bush Chair, Michael Powell, it was the media ownership battles and the adoption of the "four freedoms" that set out the Commission's expectation of consumers' Internet rights.
Current FCC Chairman Kevin Martin will be facing one of those moments in the coming weeks. On Wednesday, the FCC is expected to adopt an order that will begin to set the terms of the most valuable spectrum auction we have yet seen, and likely the last significant auction in our lifetimes. As I wrote about previously, this auction involves 60 MHz of spectrum that broadcasters are to return as part of the digital TV transition. The location (in the 700 MHz band) and characteristics of this spectrum make it ideal for the development of a third, nationwide broadband provider that could compete with the powerful broadband duopoly: telephone and cable companies. Indeed, Congress has made it clear that its expectation is that this auction will lead to the creation of a third broadband "pipe." But unless the FCC takes a very different course than it has in past auctions, this spectrum will most likely land in the hands of those very incumbents. The result is that instead of competition, the public will probably receive no more than so-called "4G" wireless services, which will be yet another service consumers will have to purchase in addition to their cellphone and broadband services.
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Every Federal Communications Commission Chairman has one or two legacy-defining moments in his tenure. For Clinton FCC Chair (and PK Board member) Reed Hundt, it was pushing through the Children's Television programming rules and starting the transition to Digital TV. For the first George W. Bush Chair, Michael Powell, it was the media ownership battles and the adoption of the "four freedoms" that set out the Commission's expectation of consumers' Internet rights.
Current FCC Chairman Kevin Martin will be facing one of those moments in the coming weeks. On Wednesday, the FCC is expected to adopt an order that will begin to set the terms of the most valuable spectrum auction we have yet seen, and likely the last significant auction in our lifetimes. As I wrote about previously, this auction involves 60 MHz of spectrum that broadcasters are to return as part of the digital TV transition. The location (in the 700 MHz band) and characteristics of this spectrum make it ideal for the development of a third, nationwide broadband provider that could compete with the powerful broadband duopoly: telephone and cable companies. Indeed, Congress has made it clear that its expectation is that this auction will lead to the creation of a third broadband "pipe." But unless the FCC takes a very different course than it has in past auctions, this spectrum will most likely land in the hands of those very incumbents. The result is that instead of competition, the public will probably receive no more than so-called "4G" wireless services, which will be yet another service consumers will have to purchase in addition to their cellphone and broadband services.
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Every Federal Communications Commission Chairman has one or two legacy-defining moments in his tenure. For Clinton FCC Chair (and PK Board member) Reed Hundt, it was pushing through the Children's Television programming rules and starting the transition to Digital TV. For the first George W. Bush Chair, Michael Powell, it was the media ownership battles and the adoption of the "four freedoms" that set out the Commission's expectation of consumers' Internet rights.
Current FCC Chairman Kevin Martin will be facing one of those moments in the coming weeks. On Wednesday, the FCC is expected to adopt an order that will begin to set the terms of the most valuable spectrum auction we have yet seen, and likely the last significant auction in our lifetimes. As I wrote about previously, this auction involves 60 MHz of spectrum that broadcasters are to return as part of the digital TV transition. The location (in the 700 MHz band) and characteristics of this spectrum make it ideal for the development of a third, nationwide broadband provider that could compete with the powerful broadband duopoly: telephone and cable companies. Indeed, Congress has made it clear that its expectation is that this auction will lead to the creation of a third broadband "pipe." But unless the FCC takes a very different course than it has in past auctions, this spectrum will most likely land in the hands of those very incumbents. The result is that instead of competition, the public will probably receive no more than so-called "4G" wireless services, which will be yet another service consumers will have to purchase in addition to their cellphone and broadband services.
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Every Federal Communications Commission Chairman has one or two legacy-defining moments in his tenure. For Clinton FCC Chair (and PK Board member) Reed Hundt, it was pushing through the Children's Television programming rules and starting the transition to Digital TV. For the first George W. Bush Chair, Michael Powell, it was the media ownership battles and the adoption of the "four freedoms" that set out the Commission's expectation of consumers' Internet rights.
Current FCC Chairman Kevin Martin will be facing one of those moments in the coming weeks. On Wednesday, the FCC is expected to adopt an order that will begin to set the terms of the most valuable spectrum auction we have yet seen, and likely the last significant auction in our lifetimes. As I wrote about previously, this auction involves 60 MHz of spectrum that broadcasters are to return as part of the digital TV transition. The location (in the 700 MHz band) and characteristics of this spectrum make it ideal for the development of a third, nationwide broadband provider that could compete with the powerful broadband duopoly: telephone and cable companies. Indeed, Congress has made it clear that its expectation is that this auction will lead to the creation of a third broadband "pipe." But unless the FCC takes a very different course than it has in past auctions, this spectrum will most likely land in the hands of those very incumbents. The result is that instead of competition, the public will probably receive no more than so-called "4G" wireless services, which will be yet another service consumers will have to purchase in addition to their cellphone and broadband services.
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