NetCompetition Chairman Scott Cleland...

industry is effectively competitive -- the third consecutive report to do so (CD March 25 p7). The FCC “is not formally acknowledging the obvious because that would undercut any justification for its regulatory plans to artificially constrict the supply of spectrum to leading wireless competitors via its proposed ’spectrum screen’ rulemaking,” Cleland said. Evidence within the report indicates the U.S. market is “as competitive as it has ever been,” he said, saying it’s “more competitive than virtually any wireless market in the world.” The biggest long-term threat to the U.S. wireless market is not insufficient competition, Cleland said -- it’s the government’s “wasteful hoarding” of 85 percent of auction-suitable spectrum between 400 MHz and 3 GHz. The federal government’s spectrum management is in “scandalous disarray,” including a lack of a transparent spectrum inventory and a lack of formal spectrum oversight by Congress or the Office of Management and Budget, he said. There is also confusion about the future of the government’s spectrum auction plans given the “stark dissonance” between the Obama administration’s commitment to auctioning off 500 MHz within 10 years and the report by the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology that recommended “curtailing” the auctions, Cleland said. The FCC would be “laser-focused” on fixing “the government’s hoarding, waste and mismanagement of spectrum and its dysfunctional spectrum auction pipeline” if it was “really focused” on promoting wireless competition, adoption and innovation, Cleland said. The FCC did not respond to a request for comment.