Why the FCC's Plan to Provide Enough Mobile Spectrum Falls Short

[Commentary] A mobile future auction may not actually free up much spectrum. The plan might be effective in rural areas, where carriers don't need more bandwidth anyway; meanwhile most broadcasters have already indicated they'll balk at selling spectrum they use to reach over-the-air viewers in urban areas. And even if such a plan were successful, Federal Communications Commission Chairman Genachowski's goal of delivering 500 MHz of new spectrum falls far short of the 800 MHz mobile network operators say they'll need to meet increasing demand for data by the end of this year. So while both the mobile industry and the FCC agree that the National Broadband Plan must make new spectrum a priority, the FCC's efforts as revealed so far won't meet the industry's needs.