Since the 1990s, the Federal Communications Commission has auctioned off licenses that allow private sector companies to commercialize portions of the radio spectrum band for the benefit of consumers. In the process, it has generated billions of dollars to help support government spending. So why is the FCC now considering just giving away – to a single telecom company – a portion of the spectrum band that is currently providing critical tech support for public safety?
What’s happening is that an organization called the Public Spectrum Safety Alliance, that claims to advocate for public safety protections, is, with the full cooperation of AT&T, promoting a single issue. They want the FCC to take the 4.9GHz spectrum band away from the state and local safety and other public-good users who presently rely on it for their communications capabilities and give it to an entity called FirstNet.
Given AT&T’s enthusiastic support of the plan, it is unsurprising this telecom mega-corporation has an exclusive contract with FirstNet. In other words, giving the spectrum to FirstNet is the same as giving it directly to AT&T for free.
The 4.9GHz spectrum band supports everything from municipal utilities to law enforcement to subways and other public transit systems, plus a whole lot more, in a number of states across America. If this proposal is approved by the FCC, AT&T will pay absolutely zero for exclusive control of this critical portion of valuable spectrum.
And it’s not just public safety and consumers who will be hurt by this; so will taxpayers. Why would the FCC even consider such a plan without receiving appropriate monetary compensation? If they think the United States government doesn’t need the money, they must not be paying attention.
Handing over valuable spectrum free of charge should not be condoned by any FCC commissioner, regardless of their political affiliation. Our nation simply cannot afford for the FCC to act in such a fiscally irresponsible manner.
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