Washington – The FCC approved rules Tuesday intended to give people more choice on their cellphones and wireless devices after a pivotal airwaves auction next year.
The vote clears the way for the auction, which is expected to raise as much as $15 billion.
The Federal Communications Commission approved a much-debated “open access” provision, pushed by Chairman Kevin Martin, a Republican, and supported by the agency’s two Democrats, that will allow customers to use whatever phone and software they want on about one-third of the spectrum to be auctioned.
A more ambitious provision that would have required a licensee to sell access to its network on a wholesale basis was not included in the rules. That makes it unlikely that Google Inc. will bid.
Google had been expected to challenge traditional wireless companies if the rules had been favorable.
The rules also will allow for the creation of a shared public-safety network that commissioners hope will solve many of the communication problems that firefighters and other first responders have experienced during disasters like the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
The vote was not unanimous. Republican Commissioner Robert McDowell dissented on the open-access provision, his first “no” vote since joining the commission. Republican Deborah Taylor Tate also expressed concerns about the provision, but she did not oppose it.
The two Democrats, Michael Copps and Jonathan Adelstein, would have preferred that the rules had included the wholesale concept sought by Google and consumer groups. Still, they ended up supporting the final rules.
The Congressional Budget Office estimates the auction’s proceeds will amount to between $10 billion and $15 billion.
A total of 62 megahertz will be auctioned under the new band plan. Twenty-two megahertz will be subjected to the open-access rules being pushed by Martin.
Another 10 megahertz will be dedicated to the national public-safety network, which will be shared between a commercial operator and public-safety agencies.
