A Dispute Over Restrictions in a US Auction of Airwaves

In the mobile high-speed Internet market, the Obama Administration believes it may be necessary to limit competition in order to promote it.

That paradox sums up a brewing fight over whether the two largest cellphone companies — AT&T and Verizon Wireless — will be allowed to participate without restrictions in the planned auction of new airwaves for wireless broadband next year. The Administration’s antitrust team urged the Federal Communications Commission in April to develop auction rules that ensure that T-Mobile US and Sprint, the two smaller nationwide mobile carriers, are able to buy some of the prime airwaves and better compete nationally with the two larger companies. The suggestion that some auction participants could get favored treatment has spawned a dispute involving corporate lobbyists, academics and members of Congress on both sides of the debate. Some television and radio broadcasters have weighed in against auction limits while consumer advocates and some big companies that use mobile broadband in their operations have backed such limits.

Whatever the FCC decides will have huge implications on the ability of American consumers to inexpensively use the Internet from their smartphones, tablets and other portable devices. It could also affect how much money will be available to build a nationwide communications network for first responders, a plan that has been on the drawing board since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.