Lawmakers urge FCC to move forward with 'free' plan

Last week, Reps Anna Eshoo (D-CA) and Ed Markey (D-MA) wrote Federal Communications Commission Chairman Kevin Martin saying, "We are concerned that incumbent wireless carriers are seeking unnecessary and unprecedented testing delays to prevent new innovative competitors from entering the market." At issue is a proposal from Chairman Martin to auction a 25MHz piece of spectrum in the 2155MHz band and require the winner to use a specified amount of spectrum for free wireless Internet access. Although the FCC first floated the idea last September, mobile operators have asked the commission to delay the vote to give them more time to consider technical issues. Reps Eshoo and Markey pointed out that tests performed by Ofcom, the UK's equivalent of the FCC, that showed no substantial interference from the type of technical plan the FCC is proposing. "We are concerned that unnecessary interference testing would needlessly delay this auction and that this constitutes the very rationale to kill this effort totally. We urge you to carefully consider the existing precedent before making your determination," they wrote. The International Telecommunication Union and other groups have also done tests, and they all come up with essentially the same results, said John Muleta, CEO of M2Z Networks, a company that backs the FCC's plan. The tests show that some interference is possible in certain, somewhat rare situations, a result that is typically considered acceptable, he said. In some countries, operators have already been allowed to offer services on the basis of those tests, he said.