Airwaves sale is payoff for digital move

AIRWAVES SALE IS PAYOFF FOR DIGITAL MOVE
[SOURCE: Associated Press, AUTHOR: John Dunbar]
So far, the decade-long transition to digital broadcasting has mostly been about pain. Beginning Thursday, the public will start to see the gain. That's when the government will begin auctioning off the airwaves that are being made available thanks to the transition. The auction will raise billions for the U.S. Treasury and the transition will free up badly needed space for emergency communications. It's "probably the most important auction we've had to date and the most important one we're going to have in the foreseeable future," because of the quality of the spectrum, said Federal Communications Commission Chairman Kevin Martin. The airwaves are currently occupied by television UHF channels 52 through 69. The spectrum can carry lots of information across long distances and easily penetrate walls. It is so desirable that analysts have taken to calling it "beach-front property." Chairman Martin calls it the "key building block" in making wireless Internet service competitive with cable and DSL (digital subscriber line) offerings. Customers could do things like watch TV shows and transmit loads of data "wherever and whenever" they want. Skeptics say Martin is overly optimistic.
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/washington/articles/2008/01/23/airwave...

* As U.S. spectrum auction opens, questions linger
One of the major questions as the U.S. Federal Communications Commission kicks off a multibillion-dollar spectrum auction Thursday is whether the auction will produce a winning bidder that will challenge telecom and cable-based broadband providers with a national wireless broadband network. Will Google or another bidder buy enough spectrum to launch a "third pipe" broadband network? Will any bidders step forward and pledge to build a nationwide broadband and voice network for emergency response agencies? The bids to watch in the 700MHz auctions are for the C block, a 22MHz band of spectrum broken up into 12 regional licenses, and the D block, 10MHz of auctioned spectrum paired with another 10MHz set aside for a combined national commercial/emergency response agency network.
http://www.infoworld.com/article/08/01/23/US-spectrum-auction-questions_...

* FCC auction draws repeat entrepreneurs
http://www.infoworld.com/article/08/01/23/FCC-auction-draws-repeat-entre...

* Google could cause a stir in FCC's auction of airwaves
http://www.usatoday.com/printedition/money/20080124/fccauction24.art.htm