Wholesale access licensing essential to wireless competition

The New America Foundation has released a paper which concludes that wholesale access licensing is necessary to promote competition in the 700 MHz band. As the FCC prepares final rules for the upcoming auction, everyone is waiting to see whether it accepts Google’s demands for open networks.The New America Foundation has released a paper entitled Open Access for the 700 MHz Auction: Wholesale Access Licensing Promotes Competition and Could Increase Auction Revenue by former FCC Chief Economist Simon Wilkie. The paper concludes that wholesale access is needed to create true competition in wireless markets. The FCC is finalizing rules for the coming 700 MHz auction in the US. Google and AT&T have been on opposite sides of the argument with Google pushing for open services, open devices, open applications, open third party networks (overview here).

Structural separation

The New America Foundation paper makes a plea for structural separation, that is, the “disassociation of transport from retail services will promote competition and benefit consumers” and challenges the critics who claim that requiring wholesale licensing will lower the price that bidders are willing to pay.

Click here to download the New America Foundation paper.