U.S. policy has ’stifled’ broadband and wireless build out, said ...
U.S. policy has “stifled” broadband and wireless build out, said Thomas Hazlett, Manhattan Institute senior fellow and former FCC chief economist, at the WCA Conference Fri. The U.S. needs to allocate more spectrum if it wants a wireless market…
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on par with other countries’, he said. Much spectrum could be shifted from the analog TV band and elsewhere, he said: “It could be efficiently reallocated instead of dribbling out through rulemaking and 20-year transitions, micromanaged from Washington.” The FCC’s allowing spectrum to lie fallow is the real problem, said former NTIA Dir. Gregory Rohde. The FCC has no policy to push spectrum buyers to actually use that spectrum, he said. “We could allocate more, but we don’t ask about if it’s going to be used,” he said: “If a [spectrum buyer] refuses to use it, the FCC should give it to someone who will.” Hazlett agreed fallow spectrum is a problem, but he said he fears that an assertive FCC policy would increase govt. micromanagement. If more spectrum were allocated to begin with, the competitive market would prevent spectrum from lying fallow, he said.