----- Forwarded message from Dave Farber <[email protected]> -----
Date: Thu, 5 Jan 2012 08:36:35 -0500 (EST)
From: Dave Farber <[email protected]>
Subject: [IP] Levin: TV Spectrum Auctions Likely Doomed
Reply-To: [email protected]
To: ip <[email protected]>
-----Original Message-----
From: Dewayne Hendricks <[email protected]>
To: Multiple recipients of Dewayne-Net <[email protected]>
Sent: Thu, 05 Jan 2012 8:23 AM
Subject: [Dewayne-Net] Levin: TV Spectrum Auctions Likely Doomed
Levin: TV Spectrum Auctions Likely Doomed
The chief architect of the FCC's National Broadband Plan says the incentive
auction of TV spectrum is unlikely to produce much spectrum for wireless
broadband or money for the federal treasury. Why? NAB-backed provisions
designed to protect broadcasters in the authorizing legislation will expose the
auction to crippling litigation. "Congratulations to [NAB President] Gordon
Smith," he says. "He did a great job. He did the job he was hired to do.... But
let???s not kid ourselves: That???s not putting the United States first."
By Kim McAvoy, TVNewsCheck
January 5, 2012
<http://www.tvnewscheck.com/article/2012/01/04/56476/levin-tv-spectrum-auctions-likely-doomed/page/1>
An FCC incentive auction of broadcast TV spectrum will likely "fail" if, as
expected, Congress adopts Republican House authorizing legislation, according
to Blair Levin, the chief architect of the FCC???s 2010 National Broadband Plan
that first proposed the auction.
The legislation, authored by House Communications Subcommittee Chairman Greg
Walden (R-Ore.), would grant the FCC authority to conduct incentive auctions
??? auctions in which proceeds are shared with broadcasters who voluntarily
give up their spectrum.
But it also contains provisions designed to protect broadcasters who hang on to
their spectrum. And they are what has Levin worried.
"The legislation ties the FCC???s hands in a variety of ways," said Levin, who
left the FCC following release of the broadband plan and is now attached to the
Aspen Institute. "It opens it up to litigation risk, which then, in conjunction
with the other handcuffs, makes it difficult to pull off a successful auction.
"The nature of the bill dramatically increases the probability that there will
be less spectrum recovered and less money for the [U.S.] Treasury."
Levin and FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski have been pushing for the incentive
auction authority since 2009, believing that much TV spectrum is underutilized
and it would be best to auction it off to wireless broadband carriers.
[snip]
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