NCTA Backs Incentive Auction Legislation With Unlicensed 'Flexibility'

The National Cable & Telecommunications Association has joined, Google, Consumers Union and a hundred other companies and associations in backing incentive auction legislation, specifically legislation that would give the Federal Communications Commission flexibility to set aside more beachfront broadcast spectrum for unlicensed.

That comes as payroll tax conferees try to hammer out a compromise on incentive auction legislation by the end of this week. A Republican-backed incentive auction proposal would not provide that flexibility -- they argue there is already plenty of unlicensed spectrum available and that setting aside more would reduce the auction proceeds needed to pay for the payroll tax break and extending unemployment benefits. But NCTA and company say some of that beachfront needs to be set aside, or at least available, for "driving innovation, promoting rural broadband deployment, and creating new services in the wireless ecosystem."