FCC Commissioner: No fixed spectrum for 3G mobile services

BOSTON—FCC Kathleen Abernathy today said she opposes reallocating multichannel multipoint distribution service (MMDS) and instructional television fixed service (ITFS) fixed broadband wireless spectrum for third generation (3G) mobile wireless services, and hopes the issue is resolved “as soon as practicable.”

The FCC is considering a request to reallocate the approximately 165 MHz of bandwidth, in the 2.5 GHz range, from its current use by educational and commercial operations to the mobile wireless industry. The commission’s indecision is casting a pall over educators, operators and vendors who are having difficulty funding new services.

Abernathy, in a keynote address to the Wireless Communications Association (WCA) convention, said, “We (FCC) owe you a prompt decision to eliminate the cloud that hangs over you.”

While not promising to take the matter off the table, Abernathy indicated it would not be a lingering issue.

“I do believe it was prudent for the government to explore all the available options,” she said, but, once it was apparent that the fixed broadband industry was making good use of its spectrum, “it now becomes difficult for me to contemplate a disruption of those services.”

Abernathy, who has only been on the job for a month, said she favors a “private market-based solution to government mandates” because it is “much more pro-consumer.”

Thus, she concluded, the “government must be humble in regulating technology.”