Blame your mobile-phone company AND the US government for your dropped calls

The last time there was a major auction for spectrum was 2008. So instead, mobile phone companies have been scrambling to buy existing spectrum from each other and from cable companies. Mobile phone companies have long complained that the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) isn’t auctioning spectrum fast enough. But companies also have a lot of spectrum they aren’t fully using. And other tech firms like Google and Microsoft have lobbied for saving some wireless spectrum for mobile services that haven’t been invented yet.

The FCC is trying to make more spectrum available, but wants to do it in a way that gives more people access to high speed internet. Next year, TV broadcasters will put spectrum up for sale in a complex arrangement and share in the proceeds with the government, which should help in the spectrum crunch. But the US Justice Department has warned the FCC that it shouldn’t let the two largest mobile phone carriers, Verizon and AT&T, dominate the auction, but that smaller carriers like T-Mobile and Sprint, which have also been scrambling for spectrum, should also have a shot. That has caused TV stations to worry that the spectrum sale could fail because companies that have the resources to bid, like Verizon, are being discouraged.