Sen. Schumer to FCC: Don't Limit Wireless Bidders

Sen. Charles Schumer (D-NY) has urged the Federal Communications Commission not to adopt any incentive auction rules that would limit the participation of "certain wireless carriers." The statement came in a letter on Nov. 20, 2013 to new FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler.

Sen. Schumer did not name them, but the "certain carriers" are primarily Verizon and AT&T, who have been battling an effort by Sprint and T-Mobile to potentially limit their ability to participate by limiting the amount of low-band, beachfront spectrum holdings in any single market or letting smaller carriers bid first for some spectrum and allow the larger ones -- AT&T and Verizon -- to bid if a benchmark price Is not met. Sprint and T-Mobile argue that, given how much low-band spectrum the top two largest companies already own, it's incumbent upon the FCC to impose "reasonable" limits. Chairman Wheeler said the principal purpose of the auction should be to pay for FirstNet, a first-responder broadband network, and the secondary purpose is to free up spectrum "not being used to its fullest potential."

(Nov 21)