The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is preparing new rules that seek to help new players break into the wireless broadband market by easing the requirements for participating in auctions for spectrum.
Last Thursday, FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler handed over to commissioners copies of a proposal for revising the rules of spectrum auction.
The commission will vote on the proposed revision during its next open meeting, Wheeler wrote in a blog post.
"The opportunities being created by the wireless revolution are massive and will only continue to grow," said Wheeler. "Small businesses, including women- and minority-owned businesses and rural service providers, should have the opportunity to share in this growth, but they have faced significant barriers to meaningful participation in the industry."
The top players in the wireless industry have fattened themselves on so much spectrum—frequencies on which wireless signals are transferred—that it isn't just the FCC calling for change.
Verizon and AT&T have glutted themselves so much on licenses to operate on specified frequencies that T-Mobile has asked that the FCC place limits on the amount of spectrum, while Sprint has so much spectrum to spare that it recently sat out of an auction for more.
"Everyone with a wireless phone has a stake in the outcome of this proceeding, and the FCC should heed the calls of DoJ, many in Congress and a slew of consumer groups and move to strengthen the reserve," said Andy Levin, T-Mobile's senior vice president for government affairs.
To make seats at the table for smaller players, smaller than T-Mobile even, the FCC is considering the removal of a facilities requirement from the auction. Right now, auction participants are required to be a "facilities-based wireless service."
The FCC believes in "eliminating this constraint on business model innovation and freeing small businesses to make decisions that work best for them." The proposal aims to develop a new rural business bidding credit that will "incentivize participation in future auctions by rural service providers in the communities they serve."
The FCC will also heed the voice of T-Mobile and others who have been calling for a cap on bidding credits at spectrum auctions. Doing so " [minimizes] an incentive for major corporations" to hijack the auction, according to the statement.
This is "another crucial step forward in the process of designing and implementing an effective and efficient auction that will bring more capacity for wireless broadband services to consumers," said Wheeler.
