The federal government appears “stuck” in its move to get...
The federal government appears “stuck” in its move to get more federal spectrum in play for wireless broadband, FCC Commissioner Ajit Pai said Thursday in a blog post on the conservative website Redstate.com. “I believe that a substantial amount of…
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spectrum needs to be transferred from the federal government to the private sector,” Pai wrote (http://xrl.us/bn83sp). “The federal government needs to let some spectrum go.” Pai noted that six years ago “federal agencies cleared a big chunk of federal spectrum -- 90 MHz -- for commercial use,” prior to the AWS-1 auction. “There’s no doubt that American consumers are benefitting from this cleared spectrum,” he said. “That 90 MHz today is being used by wireless carriers to provide 4G broadband service across the country. But now we're stuck. In the last four years, the federal government has not relinquished any spectrum for commercial use. Even worse, some in Washington, D.C., have all but given up on putting more federal spectrum in private hands.” Spectrum sharing isn’t a good substitute for spectrum clearing, Pai said. “To illustrate why, think about buying some government land to build a house,” he said. “Under option A, the government gives up property and sells it to you outright. Under option B, the government allows you to share its property and reserves the right to occupy your house whenever it decides it needs to use it. Under which scenario would you be more likely to buy the land, build the house, and use it productively?"