WASHINGTON-Dan Phythyon, top mobile communications regulator at the Federal Communications Commission, last week cautioned against overreaction to congressionally mandated private wireless auctions and urged licensees to lobby Congress for spectrum lease fee authority as an alternative.
“I know that many people have taken the impression that we’re auction crazed. I don’t think we are,” Phythyon told a luncheon audience at the Industrial Telecommunications Association annual meeting last week.
Phythyon confirmed what private wireless has long suspected: The Wireless Telecommunications Bureau is completing a draft proposal to auction private wireless frequencies. The proposal will be presented to FCC Chairman Bill Kennard shortly and to the other four commissioners before year’s end.
In the 1997 budget act, Congress expanded the FCC’s spectrum auction authority. Since 1993, spectrum auctions have been limited to commercial wireless services, like paging, personal communications services and specialized mobile radio.
The 1997 auction law exempts public-safety radio services, “including private internal radio services used by state and local governments and non-government entities and including emergency road services provided by not-for-profit organizations, that are used to protect the safety of life, health or property; and are not made commercially available to the public.”
Phythyon, who would not reveal what private wireless sectors-other than public safety-might be exempted, said his hands are tied in that Congress has made auctions the primary licensing tool of the FCC.
“I think any additional tools for spectrum management would be greatly appreciated,” said Ari Fitzgerald, wireless adviser to Kennard.
Phythyon, before becoming WTB chief, headed FCC lobbying under former chairman Reed Hundt when a concerted effort was made to expand auction authority.
At the same time, Phythyon said he and other top FCC officials acknowledge limitations of auctions, and said they are open to other options.
Phythyon said the exemption issue as it relates to different uses of private wireless spectrum and to the auction status of shared spectrum will be addressed in comments to the FCC proposal when it is issued.
Other questions on the table, according to Phythyon, include whether private wireless auction eligibility should be limited to businesses and whether very small service areas would be appropriate.
Phythyon, pointing to some 220-222 MHz licenses that recently sold for several thousand dollars, said coming private wireless auctions should not be viewed in the same light as past broadband personal communications services that cumulatively drew pledges of nearly $20 billion.
At the same time, he said private wireless users must continue to consider ways to make more efficient use of their spectrum and explore having some of their needs met by commercial wireless service providers.
Some people grumbled following the speech that the reason 220 MHz and other spectrum licenses sold for so little is the spectrum lacks commercial value.
Phythyon said the timing is good for ITA to lobby for spectrum lease fees because the country is between Congresses and because lawmakers no longer have budget deficit pressures. Phythyon would not say how aggressively the FCC might press Congress for spectrum lease fees.
With ITA’s urging, Senate Commerce Committee member John Breaux (D-La.) last year sponsored a spectrum lease fee bill that eventually died.
