New America: Incentive Auction Bidding Limits Are Pro-Competition

The New America Foundation hosted a briefing in Washington in which it argued that the Federal Communications Commission has the authority and duty to set spectrum limits on wireless carriers in order to "ensure that the upcoming broadcast incentive auction maximizes competition and innovation in the wireless industry."

Carriers and public interest groups assembled for the pitch on competitive auctions said that aggregation limits were necessary and appropriate.

Michael Calabrese, who directs the Wireless Future Project at New America's Open Technology Institute, said that the FCC's proposal to set aside some low-band spectrum for carriers who don't have at least a third of the low band spectrum in a market was hardly a severe limitation on participation in the auction and that AT&T and Verizon were looking to foreclose competition.

Chip Pickering, president of COMPTEL, evoked one of FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler's favorites, Abe Lincoln, in saying that score years ago competitive auctions were created and have since spurred investment and innovation and should not be allowed to perish from the earth by duopolists looking to foreclose that competition.