FCC Chairman Kevin Martin said on Thursday he is open to public-private partnerships to help build out 700 MHz wireless networks.
Speaking to the Churchill Club at Microsoft’s Silicon Valley campus, Martin said he supported the idea of sharing airwaves between first responders and the general public at noncritical times.
A number of proposals are on the table and include one from a coalition of consumer groups that want half the airwaves up for auction to be designated as “open access” spectrum.
The Coalition for 4G in America (pdf), from EchoStar, DIRECTV, Intel, Yahoo! Google, Skype and Access Spectrum, says the 15 MHz paired commercial allocation in the upper 700 band should be re-configured into a 16.5 MHz paired allocation.
On the other hand, Frontline’s plan would allocate 10 MHz of the 60 MHz available in the 700MHz band for shared use in addition to 12 Mhz in the public service band. The 10 MHz could be auctioned to anyone agreeing to operate a wholesale wireless broadband network and build a shared, public/private network. That plan is backed by some of Silicon Valley’s most powerful venture capitalists.
“One of the things that I think we need to do is (to consider) the potential to have some synergies between the two, some public-private partnerships that would allow for cross-utilization of the spectrum,” Martin said.
“Public safety (agencies are) coming to us to say they don’t have the resources to build out a next-generation (wireless) network,” Martin said. “The question is one of how to work with private sector,” he told 100 high-tech business leaders.
Two-thirds of the spectrum, or 40 Mhz, would be reserved for smaller local players to bid on, potentially to build independent businesses or to resell for use by bigger players, Martin said.
The remaining one-third, or 20 Mhz, should be offered to bigger communications players with an eye toward ensuring that major regional or even a single national player emerges that can compete effectively with established phone and cable carriers, he said.
“I think it is important to use the upcoming auction to make sure there is more than just two competitors,” Martin said. “It is important that we auction that off so someone with critical mass evolves,” he said.
