Tom Wheeler, the new chairman of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) wants to encourage competition.
On Monday, December 2, Wheeler revealed that he was looking to aggressively promote competition in the telecomm industry, as well as protect it. To encourage this, small mobile phone companies would have a shot at purchasing public airwaves at spectrum auctions in 2014.
Wheeler indicated that he is in favor of limiting huge amounts of high-quality airwaves for major carriers like AT&T and Verizon Wireless at the impending auction.
Wheeler's remarks suggest his intent to take a stand against any efforts by telecom biggies to thwart competition.
"Spectrum is finite, and the FCC is charged with managing the airwaves that are used for commercial purposes," said Wheeler in a speech in Columbus, Ohio. "A key goal of our spectrum-allocation efforts is ensuring that multiple carriers have access to airwaves needed to operate their networks."
The FCC chairman's statement will be welcomed by Sprint and T-Mobile, both of whom are looking to expand their networks.
Earlier in April this year, the Justice Department told FCC that it could help protect rivalry between companies by ensuring that the major network providers - AT&T and Verizon - were disallowed from using their financial prowess to muscle their way into purchasing the available spectrum which would be auctioned, which would push out smaller carriers.
When questioned about FCC's role in the competition Wheeler said "It's because of the FCC that you have multiple competitive choices for your mobile phone service."
Wheeler also disclosed that the FCC would carry on ensuring that the web remained fully open and enabled users to gain access to "lawful content" irrespective of which company was the Internet service provider.
"Regulating the Internet is a nonstarter," he said. But, he added, "The Internet is not a law-free zone. It depends upon standards of conduct. And it depends on the ability of the government to intervene in the event of aggravated circumstances."
Even though Wheeler is in favor of promoting competition, he said that he had "zero interest in imposing new regulations on a competitive market just because we can."
