Anna Eshoo (D-CA) and Darrell Issa (R-CA) are concerned that leaving room for unlicensed devices in the 600 MHz band may be engulfed in the ever shifting sands of incentive auction preparations.
They are concerned that various stakeholders will manage to minimize the importance of white spaces and minimize the amount of spectrum left free for that purpose, and made their concerns known in a letter to FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler, copied to the other four commissioners.
“We’re concerned,” they wrote, “that the FCC is now under pressure to undo this proposal. Jeopardizing the rollout of innovative new unlicensed technologies will not only harm startups and entrepreneurs, but stands to curtail the more than $140 billion in economic value produced by unlicensed spectrum annually.”
The added, “Industries with competing business models have proposed throwing off this careful balance by imposing technical changes that will make the spectrum effectively unusable for unlicensed services. This result would run counter to the objectives of the 2012 law.”
The concluded that making the 600 MHz safe for unlicensed devices will be a fulfillment of the will of Congress.
RBR+TVBR observation: To all appearances, Eshoo and Issa are getting their wish.
