Cities: there’s “no business case” for FCC’s Block D plan

One inter­est­ing part of the recent 700 MHz FCC auc­tion was the cre­ation of the “Block D” plan. The FCC’s idea was to set aside part of the spec­trum for public/emergency ser­vice use. So far so good. But instead of just allo­cat­ing the spec­trum and let­ting autho­rized par­ties use it, their idea was to put it out for bid like the rest of the 700 MHz band and then force a num­ber of con­di­tions on the win­ner as far as use and what they would have to pro­vide to users. Unsur­pris­ingly, there were no bid­ders for Block D. Worse, cities like NYC and DC that the FCC assumed would eat this up, don’t want it.

The FCC needs to get back to its for­mer reg­u­la­tory role, try­ing to be a rev­enue source via spec­trum auc­tions is clearly not some­thing it’s good at.

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