Advocates of reforms to the nation’s spectrum policy often complain that it is difficult to get policymakers to listen. In the panoply of public-policy issues, matters of spectrum generally travel in steerage.
But when the president brings it up in his State of the Union address, and later devotes an entire speech to the subject at a whistle-stop event, that’s a different story.
So it was on Wednesday, when members of the administration and policy executives from Google and Microsoft took their message of spectrum reform to Capitol Hill.
“As we think about spectrum, we think about … not only about the crunch today but the crunch that will continue over time,” said Paula Boyd, regulatory affairs counsel for Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT). “This is not a one-shot deal.”
The White House is calling for a plan that would shift spectrum from government agencies, broadcasters and other groups to mobile broadband providers, using a portion of the proceeds from auction sales to pay down the deficit.
Datamation takes a look.