This Is Not The WiMax Miracle We Were Promised > Bring on the revolution133;

Bring on the revolution133;

I had a related post in another topic, but it's worth reposting here:

I was doing some thinking, on what would be a better system of spectrum licensing, besides a spectrum auction.

Instead of a straight auctioning, which is designed to extract the highest price possible (instead of the best service possible at the lowest cost, the real objective), the FCC could issue a Request for Proposals (RFPs) for new spectrum becoming available. I've heard India is doing something similar to bring wireless to its rural areas, I think they call it a reverse auction or a service auction.

Companies/Consortiums would bid their proposal for use of that spectrum. They would detail what they would use it for (broadband most likely), build out, financing secured, experience, etc. Or the FCC could detail the minimum requirements.

The FCC would then select the winners based on the best proposals, and could take other things into account such whether bidder is a new entrant, a big incumbent, or somewhere in between.

There's certainly more that can go wrong here, compared to a straight auction system. But, as long the process is done openly and transparently, the metrics are clearly defined (e.g. build-out, financing, etc.), picking winners are based purely on what's best for the market (the customers, ordinary people and businesses), and that the winning companies are strictly held to the standards that they agreed to. Penalties for noncompliance could include fines, to as severe as repossession of the spectrum licenses, if need be.

Anyone thoughts?

Lets just put up most if not all spectrum for auction every year or couple of years. People who warehouse spectrum will be fix the national debt if they want to continue to warehouse. The military can compete with the private sector to determine who is more important (yes, the money giving money to itself is a bit comical, but that money the military paid will be reused by the govt for something, but first the govt had to obtain that money some way, taxes are limited by population revolt/unelection, debt is limited by interest and who buys it).

Another idea, just mandate all spectrum have a minimum bits/hz or statutory revocation of license, except for unlicensed bands. Require all license holders submit yearly reports about how much data/bytes they pumped through their band, and when, and whether they are using the most efficient protocol for their usage class, and perform a feasibility study about sharing the spectrum with like usage classes, other spectrum users can sue the licensee in federal court if their feasibility studies are BS. Require all existing license holders submit why wireline can't be used for P2P links. Charge a yearly license fee that is 50% of 10 year landline construction cost amortization (oh come on, anyone can get a telecom license from the state and start building regional fiber themselves) for the P2P link. Its a moral hazard any other way.

Military, umm, 2-3 radar systems. Must be active and manned 24/7. Must submit yearly report of activity and use of that radar. Radar bands in international waters are not to be used in the USA and must be non-military usage. Or international radar bands are the only ones permitted in the USA. Every military license must include Multiple Access protocols/use encryption/authentication, not assumption of exclusivity for the channel. All SCADA artillery talk gets one band, not 1 100 khz channel for each generation of artillery.