CTIA estimate faces tough questions on spectrum auction estimates

CTIA is facing tough questions on its estimate for how much money would be raised if TV broadcasters sell off their pieces of the airwaves. CTIA said in a white paper this week that incentive spectrum auctions can raise $33 billion. Harold Feld, legal director of Public Knowledge, is skeptical about some of the assumptions in the paper. Even some of the top proponents of spectrum auctions acknowledge that estimates often vary. The architect of the FCC's National Broadband Plan (which laid out the path forward on spectrum auctions), Blair Levin explained that this is because "the experience with auctions suggests that there are many factors that will affect the ultimate price." "The big auctions often went way beyond the estimate but that doesn't mean it will here. I do think they are in the range, and that that is best one can do," he said. Levin added that there are "only two certainties" about such an auction: "It will raise billions" and, "more important, those billions will be more than matched by new investments, new services and new jobs."