IP: All-but-secret battle rages over fate of airwaves

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

> Date: Wed, 05 Sep 2001 14:06:37 -0700
> From: "Robert J. Berger" <rberger () ultradevices com>
>
> I knew I wasn't hallucinating that the Broadcasters are trying to get paid 
> for Spectrum that they don't really own....
>
> USA Today Guest Editorial
> 09/04/2001 - Updated 08:22 PM ET
> All-but-secret battle rages over fate of airwaves
> http://www.usatoday.com/news/comment/2001-09-05-ncguest1.htm
> By Norman Ornstein
>
> Forget Star Wars, the moniker for missile defense, which looms ahead
> as one of the classic Washington battles, pitting skeptical Democrats
> in Congress against a determined president and his Republican
> congressional leaders. It has already received tons of ink and
> airtime.  There is another battle ahead that has been virtually
> ignored in newspapers and on the airwaves that will dwarf Star
> Wars. Call it "Spectrum Wars."
>
> Here are the basics. The world is moving rapidly toward a new era in
> telecommunications: the wireless world. Already close to reality in
> Europe, this new world will integrate cellphones, personal data
> assistants such as PalmPilots, computers and the Internet, allowing
> one to communicate with anybody and get instant information from
> anywhere no matter where one is in the world.
>
> <snip>
>
> That, of course, is not what broadcasters had in mind when they threw
> their institutional weight behind the Pickering-Upton plan. So the
> National Association of Broadcasters is floating a new idea on Capitol
> Hill: Let the broadcasters auction off their analog spectrum and use
> the revenues to accelerate the rollout of DTV.
>
> The audacity of this idea is breathtaking. After Congress gave
> broadcasters public airwaves worth $70 billion — or far more —
> on the condition that they would return their analog spectrum to the
> public in a timely fashion, they now want to keep both, auction one
> off and pocket the proceeds!
>
> The public knows little about this; even some experts are unaware of
> the machinations. Not surprisingly, television has not covered it. But
> the consequences, for all of us, are staggering. Given the stakes, and
> the power of the players, it will get attention eventually — but if
> past experience is any guide, only after the critical decisions have
> been made. Maybe some reporter, somewhere, now will decide to focus
> his or her attention on a potential $200-billion rape of the American
> taxpayer.
>
> Norman Ornstein is a senior resident scholar at the American
> Enterprise Institute and a member of USA TODAY's board of
> contributors.
> --



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