"NET NEUTRALITY" is ANTIPROPERTY Date: Sat, 2 Feb 2008 22:05:36 -0600 (CST) "Everybody throws the word 'open' around and says open is wonderful, ... "But 'open' means communal. It means not owned." See below - the lines are set !! Michael ############# http://news.yahoo.com/s/pcworld/20080202/tc_pcworld/142038 NET NEUTRALITY ADVOCATES ARE 'ANTIPROPERTY,' CRITIC SAYS The debate heats with some tech companies pushing Congress and the FCC to restrict spectrum use in latest auction. PC World Saturday, February 2, 2008; 1:19 PM Tech companies pushing for access to spectrum "white spaces" and for net neutrality and open access on broadband and wireless networks have an antiproperty agenda, says one critic. Open access and other conditions on the 700MHz spectrum currently being auctioned by the U.S. Federal Communications Commission may be suppressing bids and limiting the uses winning bidders have for the spectrum, added Scott Cleland, founder of telecom analyst firm The Precursor Group, speaking at the U.S. Congressional Internet Caucus Advisory Committee's 2008 State of the 'Net Conference in Washington, D.C. Cleland voiced a contrarian view during a discussion of spectrum policy; other speakers called on the U.S. Congress and the FCC to open up more spectrum to unlicensed uses. Open access in theongoing 700MHz auctionat the FCC, widening fair-use rights under copyright,net neutralityand white-spaces access to television spectrum are all part of a broad and hidden agenda pushed by some tech companies and civil liberties groups, said Cleland, whose company operates the anti-net-neutrality advocacy group NetCompetition.org. "Everybody throws the word 'open' around and says open is wonderful," he said. "But 'open' means communal. It means not owned." Other speakers suggested mobile networks aren't open enough. Mobile voice providers Verizon Wireless and AT&T have embraced a version of open access in recent months, but they still limit innovative mobile applications, said Jason Devitt, founder of secretive startup Skydeck and cofounder of mobile-phone-application provider Vindigo. Verizon Wireless in November announced it would open its network this year to outside devices, but that doesn't help mobile application developers, Devitt said. Most of Verizon's customers will still get their handsets from Verizon, and developers will have to get the company's permission to include their applications on Verizon-sold phones, he said. "If you're a developer of mobile applications, Verizon's announcement makes no difference," he said. Cleland blasted the FCC for including open-access requirements in about a third of the 62MHz of spectrum in the 700MHz band currently being auctioned, saying some of the requirements may have driven away bidders. In the 22MHz block of spectrum called the C block, the winning bidder must allow users to bring devices such as mobile phones from other carriers and allow outside applications to run on the network. The FCC's 700MHz auction began last Thursday, and after 16 rounds of bidding through Wednesday, the high bid for the C block was nearly $4.3 billion, just short of the reserve price of $4.6 billion set by the FCC. High bids for the complete auction totalled $10.8 billion, and the FCC had expected to raise at least $10 billion. The auction will likely continue for several days, depending on bidding action. But Cleland criticized the FCC for imposing conditions on the C block and the D block of spectrum, a 10MHz block that the FCC wants to pair with another 10MHz set aside for public safety. The winning bidder of the D block would be required to build a nationwide mobile and broadband network with the two pieces of spectrum, with the network shared by public safety agencies and commercial users. By midweek, the D block had received a high bid of $472 million, far short of the $1.3 billion reserve price demanded by the FCC. The FCC may have to re-auction the D block without some of the requirements, Cleland said. When the FCC sets several conditions on spectrum, "the bidders have the freedom not to play," Cleland said. "An auction is a party. You don't get people to come to your party if you make it not fun and not a happy place." Other speakers disagreed with Cleland. The FCC needs to push forward with a proposal that would open up the unused "white spaces" in the spectrum bands used by U.S. television broadcasters, said Michael Calabrese, director of the Spectrum Policy Program at think tank the New America Foundation. Opening up this unused spectrum, which allows the long-range transmission of signals, would allow companies to offer wireless broadband services, particularly in rural areas, Calabrese said. TV broadcasters have opposed unlicensed spectrum use in the white spaces, saying the technology to avoid existing signals is unproven. The FCC is currently testing white-space devices. ############## http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/01/31/AR2008013103586.html The Washington Post Friday, February 1, 2008; Bidder Meets FCC's Price for Airwaves An undisclosed bidder yesterday met the government's minimum asking price at an auction for one of technology's most coveted assets: airwaves that will be used to build a new wireless network. The $4.71 billion bid exceeded the Federal Communications Commission's reserve price of $4.64 billion, automatically triggering a condition that requires the winning bidder to use the airwaves to construct an open network. An open network is a system usable with any mobile device and for any application. The auction is ongoing, and the winner of the auction will not be named until it concludes. But yesterday's development signaled victory for companies such as Google and Skype, which have said an open wireless network would lay groundwork for greater consumer choice. Cellphone companies currently limit which devices subscribers can use and which Web sites they can surf on their phones. Google, which promised to bid at least $4.6 billion if open-network requirements were adopted, lobbied for those rules because it would enable mobile subscribers to have easier access to its services. Google, along with Verizon Wireless and AT&T, two of the other companies bidding on the so-called C-block chunk of airwaves, declined comment yesterday, citing FCC rules prohibiting them from discussing the auction. FCC Chairman Kevin J. Martin applauded the auction's progress. "The openness requirement is important both in terms of the innovation it will lead to on the edges of the network and the ability of consumers to take advantage of that innovation," Martin said yesterday in a meeting with members of the news media. But the FCC cannot conclude the auction until it resolves issues surrounding other components of its airwave auction, most critically a piece of spectrum that is on the block and dedicated for use by public-safety groups. One of the main goals of the auction was to promote the building of a new, national wireless network for public-safety responders like police and fire fighters. The agency set aside one segment of the airwaves in the 700-megahertz frequency and hoped to auction it to a company that could build a network for sharing with public-safety institutions in times of emergency. Currently, public-safety groups use a patchwork of wireless networks that are easily overloaded and that cannot communicate with each other. Since the auction started on Jan. 24, however, the agency has received only one bid at less than half its reserve price for those public-safety airwaves. Five business days have passed without an additional bid. Speaking to the press yesterday, Martin said he was optimistic the block of airwaves reserved for so-called first responders will attract interest, even though it has languished. If the reserve price is not met, Martin said the commission would reevaluate the rules of the auction. Whether the auction is successful will depend largely on whether the FCC can achieve its goals other than raising sufficient money, said Ben Scott, policy director at Free Press, a public-interest firm focused on communications issues. "To me it looks like they are going to get the money, but not the public-safety network," Scott said. If the auction is won by either Verizon Wireless or AT&T -- both of which control the biggest wireless and high-speed Internet companies -- it may also fall short of the FCC's goals of adding new competition, he said. Those companies "are highly unlikely to build out a network that would compete with their services," he said.