OMG! - FCC labeled Washington's Worst Communicator

There were a few provocative(?) insightful (?) revealing (?) stories in the media today regarding the FCC's public communications skills....

This AP story by John Dunbar "FCC's Methods Leaves Public in the Dark" suggests "It's odd for an agency that has the word "communications" as its middle name" to "routinely leave the public in the dark about how it makes critical policy decisions".

Cynthia Brumfield at The IP and Democracy site follows up with a claim that "the FCC is the worst communicator in Washington". "Clear answers are rare and, indeed, FCC rules dictate that agenda items (those issues to be voted upon by the Commissioners) are “non-public” information. Employees can get fired if they disclose anything the FCC is planning". She also provides links to a couple of additional pieces written by Ted Hearn at MultiChannel News who labeled the agency the “Federal Incommunicado Commission”.

She adds even more fuel to the fire by ranking the Commissions web site as a "nightmare"--- a real nightmare.

Frankly, I don't understand what all the hullabaloo is about. The FCC long ago abdicated its responsibility to openly communicate with the general public (along with certain other spectrum management related duties) and is now the best corporate and special interest facilitating entity that money and lobbying can buy. I guess some folks just can't get used to the way business is done at the Portals these days, but I can assure you that there's good reason for it. Just continue on as usual (spectrum matters are out of your league, anyway, right?) and everything will turn out just fine....


NR

Will The Failure of FCC Spectrum Auctions Impact 700 MHz?

hmmmm.....

According to this May 2006 paper from the Center for American Progress (quote) "The Federal Communications Commission’s auctioning of spectrum licenses is a failure. The auctions have been subject to collusion and manipulation by big business, and as a result have failed to meet legislative guidelines." (end quote)


(Quote) "Analysis of the last ten years of FCC spectrum auctions reveals that these auctions have met neither the standards nor the expectations expressed by Congress in their authorization. They do not facilitate the development of robust markets or meet the needs of the broader public interest. Instead these auctions, as they have been conducted, appear to serve the narrow interest of dominant actors in the telecommunications industry. They have systematically resulted in market concentration and the growth of the oligopolistic market power of major actors in the telecommunications industry. They have been pervious to manipulation by tacit collusion among bidders in ways which no minor amendment of the auction process could possibility remedy. Even the often made argument that FCC spectrum auctions maximize revenue fails in the face of both FCC mispricing of licenses, reflected in the large number of licenses which fail to be auctioned because no bidder meets the reserve price, and substantial evidence that strategic behaviors like preemptive bidding can guarantee better capitalized bidders licenses at consistently lower prices than their competitors. What has principally driven the adoption of spectrum auctions by the FCC and Congress has been ideologically-libertarian economic theory, captured in simplistic models which ignore inconvenient facts. Game theory is a powerful tool for analysis of economic behavior. However, a game-theoric model is only as good as its assumptions. Assumptions about information, bidder resources, risk-acceptance and -aversion, and the structure of bidder preference all matter, because they imply things about how the real world operates. All modeling is along a continuum between analytical tractability and empirical verisimilitude: the more mathematically tractable the model is, the less it resembles the real thing being modeled. It is for this reason that social scientists frequent evaluate and refine such models through experiments to see whether an analytically tractable model captures what really matters about the thing it models. The past ten years of FCC spectrum auctions have amounted to such an experiment, and the experiment demonstrates that the models on the basis of which Congress and the FCC were persuaded to adopt spectrum auctions fail dramatically in their prediction of real-world outcomes. When tested by the actual performance of such auctions, the chasm between the outcomes predicted by theory and the outcomes observed is immense. In sacrificing the public interest in pursuit of hypothesized market efficiencies and greater revenue we have arrived at the worst of both worlds: FCC spectrum auctions neither serve the public interest nor realize the promised economic efficiencies and revenue maximization touted by their advocates." (end quote)


(Quote) "Until the FCC can demonstrate that it can conduct auctions in the public interest, Congress should halt the ongoing plans to auction licenses to the public spectrum." (end quote)



Kinda makes one question just how small business entrepreneurs, women, minorities, and public safety/first responders will fare in the up-coming - and perhaps most important auction of all - that of the 700 MHz spectrum.


NR

700 MHz Auction - A Spectators "Field Guide"

For your reading pleasure, here's a few links to almost everything you might want to know about the FCC's up-coming 700 MHz auction - likely to be the most important spectrum allocation proceeding in recent history - brought about by significant advances in technology and our society's rapidly changing life-style.

The first - from Harold Feld's 'Tales of the Sausage Factory' blog - is an interesting, informative, and, if nothing else, definitely entertaining (well, sort of) spectators "field guide" to the proceeding:

Excerpts:

Few events in the wireless world matter so much, yet get so little coverage, as the upcoming 700 MHz wireless auction. Why? Because they're hard, and the mainstream media (MSM to us "bloggers") are afraid you will get all confuzzled and bored. Besides, isn't non-stop coverage of Anna Nichole Smith more satisfying? (Hint: She's still dead.)

Issues include network neutrality, open access, wireless competition, the future of broadband competition, and a whole lot of public safety stuff. It includes a cast of thousands from Frontline to Cyren Call to the Ad Hoc Public Interest Spectrum Coalition (I thought up the name myself! O.K., I was in a rush . . . .) and an army of incumbents that like the universe just the way it is, thank you and do not look kindly on those of us trying to shake things up.

I warn you, this is extremely long (13 pages, I probably should have broken it up into more than one post), and complicated, and all that stuff that mainstream media figures your pretty lil' heads can't handle without getting all confuzzled. So, if ye be readers of courage, willing to risk getting all confuzzled and thinking about how our wireless and broadband future will unfold for the next 10-15 years, read on! Or you can go back to Google News and plug in "Anna Nichole Smith" (yup, still dead).

The second - 700 MHz: A Pivotal Auction: Who, What, When, Where, Why - from Stifel, Nicolaus & Company, Inc., a multi-disciplined financial services firm, is an overview focusing on the technical "nuts and bolts" and economic aspects of this very significant event.

Both are well worth a few minutes of your time if you are at all interested in wireless spectrum matters.

NR

Wireless/Radio Spectrum Management Resources

This 2006 paper Regulating Spectrum Management: Overview and Trends is intended to provide readers with a broad overview of wireless communications spectrum management concepts and issues, including a review of differences between traditional spectrum management methods and policy and recent innovations and practices due to technology advances. The approach taken is more descriptive than prescriptive, allowing readers to make up their own mind on various perspectives. The authors have found that there are no standard solutions that fit every situation. (The "open", "commons", or "property rights" spectrum proponents may also wish to review this information.)

Further factual reading material for those wanting to learn more can be found by following these links:

Spectrum Management Overview

An introduction to spectrum management including best practices and considerations involved in the use and regulation of radio frequency spectrum.

Spectrum Policy and Planning

An outline of policy and planning considerations including technical standards and the allocation of spectrum.

Authorization

An overview of the processes by which users gain access to the spectrum resource.

Spectrum Pricing

A review of the role of spectrum pricing and economics as it relates to the method of spectrum authorization being employed.

Spectrum Monitoring and Compliance

An overview of how spectrum monitoring and compliance can help users by avoiding incompatible frequency usage through identification of sources of harmful interference.

International Affairs

An overview of international harmonization of spectrum utilization.

Developing Spectrum Management Capacity

An overview of the strategies for organization, function, process development, staffing, staff retention and training for spectrum regulators.

NR

Spectrum Matters Discussion Group established

For those reading this blog (or am I still on my own?) who may wish to engage in further discussions or, share their ideas or concerns about wireless spectrum matters in a forum or group setting, here's good news. Please visit the new Spectrum Matters discussion group on Yahoo! established just for that purpose. (Free registration required)

This moderated, spam-free group focuses on news, information, opinion, responsible debate, and commentary on all matters related to the potential social, economic, and technical benefits (or consequences) to be realized by updating legacy and/or implementing new wireless spectrum management policy in the United States.

Topics and discussions are targeted towards business, educational, industrial, enterprise, public safety, local, state, regional, federal government and similar types of PROFESSIONAL wireless users who depend on spectrum in their daily activities and who want to learn more about how and why wireless spectrum matters can, will, or already have had an impact on them.

If you have an interest in wireless communications in general and spectrum issues in particular, please join us. Membership requires a response to a New Member Confirmation Request emailed to you during the sign-up process.

NR

Economics, Politics, Wireless Spectrum....and You

On the same Wavelength
Aug 12th 2004

Most people do not worry much about physics or politics when, for example, they look at the colours of a rainbow. Nor do they pause much when they use a remote control for their TV set, talk on a mobile phone, listen to the radio, cook food in their microwave oven, open their car door from a distance, or surf the internet without wires. Yet these are all phenomena of electromagnetic radiation. How humans harness electromagnetic waves — and specifically those in the radio-frequency part of the spectrum — has become so important that old and new ways of thinking are now lining up for a tense confrontation that will affect numerous businesses and billions of consumers.

Full text:
http://www.economist.com/science/displayStory.cfm?story_id=3084475

NR