Last February, Cisco Systems (CSCO) estimated that mobile data will increase 26-fold from 2010’s numbers by 2015. Almost one-third of this will move through Wi-Fi networks, which use unlicensed spectrum and don’t burden wireless carriers such as AT&T (T) or Verizon Wireless (VZ). But the carriers have adopted the phrase “spectrum crunch,” designed to make vivid the pain of a hypothetical moment when there are more data than the available spectrum can handle.
The Obama Administration has decided that wireless carriers need more spectrum.
In 1994, rather than grant all licenses for free, the FCC began auctioning rights to pieces of spectrum, mostly to wireless carriers. Now all the easy pickings in spectrum have been auctioned off, according to Blair Levin, who headed last year’s national broadband plan for the FCC. And so the Administration has adopted Levin’s idea for opening up more spectrum to wireless companies: “incentive auctions.” Television broadcasters will be offered the chance to give up some of their spectrum in return for an as-yet-unknown percentage of the auction proceeds.
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