Nextel's Spectrum Windfall: Corporate Welfare or a Boon for Consumers and First Responders?

The FCC currently has on its plate a half-dozen or more major proposals to give licensed incumbents spectrum rights windfalls worth billions of dollars. Although it is not even close to being the biggest proposed windfall, the 800 MHz rebanding plan, initiated by Nextel, has to date been the most publicized and controversial. Unlike most FCC proceedings that focus on efficiency considerations, this proceeding heavily focuses on the equity of giving an incumbent a spectrum windfall, even if the result is a boon for consumer welfare, or public safety spectrum users.

Nextel itself embodies this paradox: a company that prefers to buy encumbered beachfront spectrum on the cheap and then lobby the FCC to get those encumbrances removed, thus securing a windfall that has already amounted to billions of dollars. Yet, Nextel has provided a valuable service to the public and enhanced competition. This panel will explore various ways to increase the equity of the 800 MHz rebanding proposal while not losing its benefits for consumer welfare and public safety. It will also touch on the linkage between the 800 MHz and 1900 MHz bands, asking whether the 1900 MHz band should be transferred to Nextel, sold at auction, or preserved for unlicensed use. (Speakers from both Nextel and the Association of Public-Safety Communications Officials were invited and have respectfully declined to participate.)

Participants

• Brian Fontes
  Vice President, Governmental Affairs, Cingular Wireless


• Pete Sepp
  Vice President of Communications, National Taxpayers Union


• J.H. Snider
  Research Director, New America Foundation


• Michael Calabrese
  Vice President and Director, Wireless Future Program, New America Foundation