Is this a good thing? Wireless spectrum to be auctioned by FCC

[cynatnite]

Out on the western plains of North Dakota, Royce Aslakson, CEO of the Reservation Telephone Cooperative, just wants a small piece of the airwaves. For Reservation, which serves 19 communities and 7,500 customers, some of whom are Native Americans, it will mean creating a little competition among cell-phone services.

Back East in Philadelphia, Comcast Corp. (NASDAQ:CMCSA - News) CEO Brian L. Roberts wants a whole lot more wireless spectrum. His plan is to offer a cell-phone service to his 22 million cable subscribers to keep them from jumping to satellite. His arch nemesis, Rupert Murdoch, whose News Corp. (NYSE:NWS - News) owns a stake in DirecTV Group (NYSE: DTV - News), is looking for spectrum, too, for data and cell-phone services that will keep Roberts from getting the upper hand.

Starting on Aug. 9, these players and more than 160 others, large and small, will be pitted against one another in an auction by the Federal Communications Commission for the largest chunk of U.S. wireless spectrum ever put out to bid. The auction, which could raise as much as $15 billion for the government, is considered a key part of FCC Chairman Kevin Martin's plan to push new broadband technologies. More important, the auction of high-frequency spectrum, which had been used for pagers, radio telephones, and government communications, could usher in a major rejiggering of the telecommunications landscape.

Divvying up more spectrum among a slew of new competitors will certainly be a plus for consumers able to choose from a new array of wireless options. Cable and satellite operators are making their biggest push yet into wireless, with the potential to threaten the established networks operated by such players as Verizon Communications (NYSE:VZ - News) and Cingular. Smaller outfits like Aslakson's Reservation could snap up spectrum in local areas around the country and roil plans by the big guys to buy wireless spectrum piecemeal to assemble a fuller network. "It's the auction of a lifetime for some companies and the biggest we'll see in a while," says James L. Thoreen, a partner with adviser GVNW Consultant, which is helping 11 smaller telecom bidders.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/bw/20060804/bs_bw/b3997088