FCC Confuses Expropriation With Incentives

[Commentary] Wireless companies, seeking to bring mobile broadband to America, are willing to pay billions of dollars for more spectrum. Television broadcasters, some in bankruptcy and all with cloudy futures, might be eager to sell. Unlocking broadcast spectrum to immediate wireless use would take a one-page order and would lead to countless new jobs for American workers and better wireless services for consumers.

In a well-functioning market, broadcasters would sell spectrum to wireless operators. But American markets are far from well-functioning. Federal rules prohibit broadcast spectrum from being used for other purposes. America is falling behind the technology frontier for new wireless services to the detriment of American innovators, workers and consumers. Surprisingly, rather than develop a simple market solution and take credit for the rescue of the American economy, President Obama's Federal Communications Commission is pursuing a path to nowhere. The path, entangled in endless rules and insoluble problems, is euphemistically called "incentive auctions." It will yield no immediate new spectrum for wireless services. Worse, it puts the federal government in the position of effectively expropriating property from private broadcasters and selling it to other private interests.

Why are the misnamed incentive auctions all the rage in Washington?

[Furchtgott-Roth is a former commissioner of the Federal Communications Commission]