700 MHz Spectrum Auction Blog Entries

As folks may have heard, the Public Interest Spectrum Coalition filed a complaint against wireless microphone manufacturers and a Petition for Rulemaking last week. As I explain on my Wetmachine blog here, the filing has the dual purpose of cleaning up a potentially nasty mess in the broadcast UHF bands before the public safety and new commercial services start operating on Channels 52-69, and finally have an honest conversation about wireless microphones in the context of the FCC’s ongoing proceeding to open the white spaces to productive use. (FCC Docket No.

I’m the sucker who just over a year ago got up at 5AM to sit in a line until 6PM to buy an iPhone. There are a lot of people like me, I met many of them in line that long day. It was actually a lot of fun, but had I known that if I had just shown up at the Apple Store at 7PM that night, I could have walked out with the same iPhone, since there was plenty of supply, I think I would have done the latter. Since June 29, 2007, I have been incredibly in love with this new computing platform called the iPhone, and I’ve written about it a bit before.

For the past couple of days, I’ve been in South Korea, attending the OECD’s Ministerial on the Future of the Internet Economy. Rather than try to give a blow-by-blow account, I’ve tried to package some of my thoughts in a series of posts. Here’s one:

Disclaimer: I’m an Apple fanatic. I love its hardware, I love its software. I’ve evangelized the Mac platform to my friends, family and coworkers and I’m directly responsible for “switching” at least a dozen of them since becoming a believer myself in 2002. So, after you read this post, don’t try to claim I’m an Apple hater, because nothing could be further from the truth.

So, yesterday the iPhone 2.0 software and iPhone 3G were announced at Apple’s World Wide Developer Conference, and both will hit the streets sometime in early July. Both software and hardware get some significant upgrades: faster connectivity, more services to connect to, 3rd party applications, true geolocation with A-GPS, etc. These upgrades come at a significantly lower upfront cost to consumers: $199 and $299 for the different memory capacities, 8GB and 16GB respectively.

New Hardware Business Models

Apple’s iPhone, being sold as it is through exclusive deals with wireless carriers, is currently only available in the US, UK, France, Germany and Austria. While plenty of folks outside of those countries would love to buy an iPhone they can’t—at least, not without modifying the device’s firmware and violating Apple’s end user license agreement (PDF link). Fortunately, it looks like the iPhone is set to become a truly global phenomenon next month. According to carrier announcements, rumors and speculation, the second-generation iPhone—widely expected to be announced during Apple CEO Steve Jobs’ keynote at the World Wide Developers Conference in June—may launch simultaneously in as many as 42 countries worldwide.

Susan Crawford recently explained how Google has petitioned the FCC to ensure that Verizon Wireless doesn’t wiggle out of its obligation to make the network they build in the recently-auctioned 700mhz spectrum open to all devices and applications. I just want to add a few points about why a “two door” policy is bad for competitors, bad for the public, and, of course, against the terms of the license. If Verizon implements a two door policy (and the FCC lets them), they’ll have pulled off a phenomenal scam, hurting customers, other carriers, the FCC, and the public at large in the process.

What Is Two Door?

It’s a shame the Federal government is trying to take the round-about route in establishing a new network for first responders. Then the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) wouldn’t be forced into the tortuous square peg-round hole exercise it’s going through now to figure out how to get private industry to pay for an emergency-quality broadband network to be only sporadically used for emergencies.

Some of the FCC Commissioners seem to feel that way also. As Commissioner Robert McDowell said last week when the FCC asked for a new round of ideas to try to fix the failed D-block auction, public safety isn’t using half of the 97 MHz it has now due to a lack of funds and lack of coordination. The current squabbling on the D-Block auction is over only 10 MHz, albeit a desirable 10 MHz in the 700 MHz band that will be used by TV broadcasters until next February.

In response to my post a couple of days ago about the possibility that VZ might not plan to comply with the 700 MHz “open platform” rules, someone wrote:

would you have the FCC mandate that every mobile device must be capable of running every operating system? If Verizon sells me a BlackBerry, should the device allow me to install Android, Palm OS, Windows Mobile, or Symbian OS? Obviously, Google believes the answer is yes (they will make the most money if they can install their OS on every device). Is it good for consumers if the FCC starts managing software specifications for computers and mobile devices?

Last Friday (HT: IPDemocracy), Google filed a petition [PDF] asking that the Commission ensure that Verizon understands what those “open platform” requirements for the C Block really mean. Verizon has taken the position in the past that its own devices won’t be subject to the “open applications” and “open handsets” requirements of the C Block rules, and Google says it is concerned that Verizon doesn’t plan to follow those requirements in the future.

This is big. Here’s the background.

Today, FCC Chairman Kevin Martin announced at the Cellular Telecommunications Industry Association (CTIA) conference that he is circulating an order at the FCC that would dismiss the petition (pdf) filed by Skype that sought an FCC ruling requiring a wireless network provider to allow the use of any non-harmful device and application on its network.

The rationale behind this decision is one we have heard many times over the past few months: Verizon announced that they are going to be open to third party devices and applications; the FCC already has required the C block of the 700 MHz spectrum recently auctioned to be open (again, controlled by Verizon); the wireless industry is headed in the direction of openness, etc. It’s done, so why do we need a ruling?