Spin City: Telco Giants Sound Off On 700MHz Auction

After Frank Rose's post on the FCC's role in the upcoming 700MHz auction, I thought it'd be entertaining to take to the streets and get a roundup of what the big telco providers had to say on the issue. Of course, for us bloggers 'taking to the streets' manifests itself as inquiring and henpecking via email, so it's been a bumpy road to enlightenment. As Frank pointed out, everyone involved (including FCC Chairman Kevin Martin) has some sort of agenda, so consider this your warning--there's a lot of spin in what follows.

Verizon Wireless provided me with this snippet via a recent press release:

The FCC, with Congressional oversight, should not be in the position of pre-determining or telegraphing auction winners. Reports of special rules for any company or segment of the high-tech industry that would tip the balance in their favor and circumvent a true auction are problematic. The so-called "Google Block" with rules tailored to one company's goal leads in that direction. If these rules are unavoidable, the amount of spectrum allocated to this open access experiment should be minimal, in order to ensure that the true value of this national resource is not diminished.

Auction winners and wireless service providers are not prohibited from providing open systems, but spectrum is a shared resource that needs to be managed efficiently in order to support the needs of all users - including public safety - on the network. Without rigorous network testing and monitoring, there's no guarantee that federal mandates including CALEA and E911 will be met, a significant concern in an era of heightened national security concerns. It does not serve the public interest to open wireless networks to devices that cannot reliably communicate with law enforcement.

SprintNextel responded to me directly with the following statement:

Sprint Nextel has adequate spectrum to meet our strategic priorities and is not taking an active position on the various proposals for the 700
MHz band. We believe, however, that it is critical for public safety communications that the FCC not cobble together a hasty set of rules for this spectrum and that the channels currently earmarked for public safety use remains so. In addition, the public interest will be best served by the Commission creating 700 MHz licenses covering smaller geographic areas rather than nationwide or a few large regional licenses.

AT&T responded by referring me to a recent FCC filing on the matter:

AT&T supports maximum eligibility and participation in the 700MHz auction. The Commission therefore should designate three commercial blocks in the Upper 700MHz band (two 11MHz blocks and one 10MHz block). By splitting the Upper 700MHz band in three commercial blocks, the Commission will provide opportunities for a wider variety of entities to use the auction process to attempt to achieve their different business plans, acquiring sufficient spectrum to offer the full panoply of innovative wireless services capable of being deployed over this spectrum.

...and T-Mobile was kind enough to send the following:

Regarding your inquiry, we have no comment at this time.