A recent article about a discussion at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) highlighted the importance of the upcoming FCC incentive auctions. There are a lot of interested parties in the these auctions: consumers want devices with lots of bars, the manufacturers of wireless products want consumers to buy more devices with bars, and the current owners of the spectrum (broadcasters) would like to make some additional revenue. From the perspective of public safety and FirstNet, however, the additional $5 billion in revenue is not a nice to have but essential to their entire enterprise and it is essential that it happen in as short a time as possible. $2 billion dollars in the context of a national network is not much at all. FirstNet’s ability to operate and plan will be compromised by delays in receiving full funding. Read this article to get some background information on the auction.
Key Questions:
- Can the FCC complete incentive auctions in 2014?
- What impact will delays have on FirstNet?
- Does any other party to the auctions other than public safety have the same incentives to complete the auctions as quickly as possible?
Discussion
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