The FCC today announced terms for the upcoming 700mhz wireless spectrum auction, setting the minimum bid price of $4.6 billion for the prime block to which they've also attached two of the four proposed open access provisions. $4.6B is coincidentally the exact number Google said they'd put up if four out of four provisions were in place.
The take from Wired's Bryan Gardiner is that this is a "put up or shut up" move from the FCC to the industry. He may be right, especially considering this:
If the reserve price isn't met, the auction will be rerun without these two conditions in place, according to the FCC.
So the stage seems to be set for the spectrum to be sold with no open access provisions at all, if that's what it takes to get the FCC their asking price. Hopefully Matt will have some first-hand information on what's going on here, but I've got a baaaaad feeling about this.
Given that the net economic benefit of an open spectrum will roll in for generations and be valued in the trillions, this is maddeningly short-sighted. In order to drum up enough money to run the occupation of Iraq for about two weeks, they're willing to lock US wireless technology into second place for decades.
Forget about catching up with Japan or the EU if this goes down the way it's looking. Heck, if the leapfroggers are correct, there will be a superior wireless economies in China, India and possibly Africa by mid-century, while we plug away in our corporate telco version of Maggie's Farm.
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