You don’t really expect the Justice Department to be involved in the question of spectrum allocation, but it has suggested that the FCC free up more spectrum for broadband efforts. The reason is that this is coming from the antitrust division of the DoJ, and the hope is that with more spectrum, it can be allocated to upstart competitors which will increase competition in the not very competitive broadband market (and don’t believe the telco lobbyists who claim otherwise).
Still, if we’re talking about freeing up spectrum, shouldn’t things go a bit further? We still have a situation where the FCC doesn’t just allocate the spectrum, but also decides what it must be used for. We’d be much better off, and have a lot more competition, if companies were free to make use of spectrum in the way they felt could bring the best return — and that companies who were granted spectrum rights also had the right to then resell those rights. While I’m still hopeful that new technologies will make spectrum scarcity a thing of the past, we still haven’t seen enough evidence that the technology really works. So, in the meantime, the better solution is to get more spectrum on the market, and stop putting limitations on how it can be used.
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