DE Program Should Still Encourage Bidding by New Market Entrants, Says PK, Citing IoT

While a filing by AT&T and small carriers last week on FCC designated entity rules made some constructive suggestions (see 1505110048), the FCC still should use the program to encourage new market entrants to bid for spectrum, Public Knowledge said in a filing posted Monday in docket 12-268. “For example, if Apple wanted to offer wireless service over exclusive licensed spectrum with its new ‘Apple Watch,’ or Intel wanted to offer a unique private network for IoT devices, it would need to rely entirely on the networks and spectrum held by others,” PK said. Buying spectrum to launch a new network would cost billions of dollars, the group said. “While giant companies might be able to afford such expenditures, it is not rational to expect them to do so -- or even plan to do so in the current environment.” PK said it makes sense to encourage smaller carriers to also buy spectrum. “These providers need an expanded bidding credit so that they may acquire the necessary spectrum to continue to serve their customer base, and to hopefully grow regionally,” PK said.