The FCC formally implemented new rules aimed at removing regulatory barriers to the development of secondary markets in spectrum usage rights. The new policies enable a wide array of facilities-based providers of broadband and other communications services to enter into spectrum leasing arrangements with Wireless Radio Service licensees. Under the new rules, leases for which there is no change in de facto control are allowed to proceed without prior FCC approval. The new policies affect both mobile and fixed services, including Cellular, Personal Communications Services (PCS), Specialized Mobile Radio (SMR), Local Multipoint Distribution Service (LMDS), fixed microwave, 24 GHz, and 39 GHz, among others.
The FCC said its more flexible policies continue an evolution toward greater reliance on the marketplace to expand the scope of available wireless services and devices, leading to more efficient and dynamic use of the important spectrum resource to the ultimate benefit of consumers throughout the country.
In adopting the new order, the FCC is also seeking public comment on how to encourage the development of information and clearinghouse mechanisms that will facilitate secondary market transactions between licensees and new users in need of access to spectrum. The FCC also seeks comment on further streamlining of application processing for leasing, transfers, and assignments, expanding leasing to additional services not covered by today's order, and modifying or eliminating other regulatory barriers impeding secondary market transactions.
In a joint statement, FCC Chairman Michael K. Powell and Commissioner Kevin J. Martin described the order as "the most important spectrum reform decisions by this Commission in the last decade." They said that access to spectrum is critical to development of wireless broadband. Consumers are expected to benefit by gaining access to new services over spectrum that otherwise would be unused. For instance, a carrier with a business plan that calls for serving only the most densely populated portions of its service area now has every incentive to lease the balance of their spectrum to an entrepreneur. Moreover, ready access to spectrum promotes increased facilities-based competition among wireless service providers and between wireless providers and other platforms.
In a dissenting opinion for the minority, Commissioner Michael J. Copps argued that Congress has not given the FCC the power to effectuate the new policy. Specifically, Copps believes that the FCC is not permitted to transfer any license without first considering whether such a transfer is in the public's interest. Nevertheless, Copps wrote that he was encouraged that the new order is limited only to commercial telecommunications providers that paid for their spectrum licenses at auction, because it would be indefensible to allow "companies that were given their spectrum rights for free to lease it and reap windfall profits."http://www.fcc.gov
- The new spectrum rules were first voted on in May 2003.
