Wheeler’s plea to mobile industry: put your money where your mouth is

In his keynote speech, FCC chairman Tom Wheeler issued vague warnings of implications for the mobile industry if it persists in being “strangely silent” about the upcoming incentive auctions.

He started by raising one of the industry’s least favourite topics – accusations that projected demand for mobile data may not be as huge as has been claimed. And questioning how much the industry really wants spectrum, he warned that broadcasters will only sell their 600 MHz band licences if they see that mobile broadband network operators are willing to pay.

He complained that despite the strong interest from AT&T and Dish, and the “big interest and big numbers” cited when Sprint and T-Mobile wanted to bid jointly, the rest of the industry has been “strangely silent”. Wheeler fears this silence could lead to the auction ending in failure.

“If mobile operators don’t put their money where their mouths have been, the future of spectrum policy will begin to look a lot different,” he said.

 The threat may have been ambiguous but his message was clear: no matter how eloquent and persuasive your lobbyists are, when it comes to the shouting match that is spectrum policy, hard cash speaks loudest.

Toby Youell, 11/9/2014