Genachowski Outlines Spectrum Overhaul

With mobile broadband exploding at a geometric pace, the Federal Communications Commission is trying to find a way to free up some 500MHz of wireless spectrum. Enterprise Networking Planet details the commission’s idea to auction off chunks of prime wireless real estate and what agencies and industries stand to benefit from the plan.

WASHINGTON — The chairman of the Federal Communications Commission today offered the first glimpse of the recommendations the agency will present to Congress for accelerating the mobile broadband sector, outlining plans for an ambitious overhaul of the wireless spectrum policies that would aim to open large portions of the airwaves for wireless data networks.

Speaking here at the New American Foundation, FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski said the commission’s national broadband plan will lay out a proposal to establish a Mobile Future Auction, a reallocation scheme that would ask TV broadcasters and other license holders to voluntarily give up some of their spectrum licenses in exchange for a portion of the proceeds generated from reselling the airwaves at auction.

Genachowski said the commission will aim to free up 500 MHz of spectrum through the new auction model in an effort to meet the looming “spectrum crunch” as the explosion of mobile data traffic threatens to overwhelm wireless networks.

“No area of the broadband ecosystem holds more promise for transformational innovation than mobile,” Genachowski said. “Although the potential of mobile broadband is limitless, its oxygen supply is not. Spectrum—our airwaves—really is the oxygen of mobile broadband service.”

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FCC Chair Pitches Spectrum Reform