Yesterday, T-Mobile USA Exec Cole Brodman flew out to D.C. to plead with the FCC to reconsider a proposal that would require bidders in the next spectrum auction to offer free Internet access, Dow Jones reported. FCC Chairman Kevin Martin is proposing that the winning bidder in an auction would be required to devote at least 25 percent of the airwaves for free Internet access to 95 percent of the country. A long list of other companies also oppose the idea, such as AT&T (NYSE: T), Texas Instruments and Motorola (NYSE: MOT). T-Mobile argues that in particular the sale would affect them because the Internet activity will be next to the band its using for wireless services. "We're asking the FCC essentially to slow down and give the industry some time to do some testing," said Brodman, who is T-Mobile's CTO.
Martin dismissed the idea that there could be interference issues. And, siding with the FCC was John Muleta of M2Z Networks, which is the company that originally brought the free Internet idea to the FCC. Muleta argued that the testing wouldn't accomplish anything but to cause a delay. Martin has already admitted that the sale may not occur until next year. Of course, the idea behind the plan is to give everyone in the U.S. a chance to have access to the Internet. However, it's unclear how a business would make money given such restrictions, and clearly opponents of the plan are against the idea because it would offer additional competition for their services, which cost billions of dollars to build.
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Posted
Jul 18 2008, 01:40 PM
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