House GOPers Blast Martin’s Auction Plan
Republicans Rail Against Pro-Google Spectrum-Auction Conditions
By Ted Hearn -- Multichannel News, 7/24/2007 3:31:00 PM
If the upcoming 700-megahertz spectrum auction bombs, Federal Communications Commission chairman Kevin Martin can’t say that his friends didn’t warn him.
Martin, a Republican Bush appointee, went to Capitol Hill Tuesday to hear annoyed senior House GOP members vent that his auction proposals were wrongheaded, an abandonment of free-market principles and crafted to suit the needs of one company: Internet search giant Google.
“I am very disappointed that chairman Martin has come up with this plan,” said Rep. Joe Barton (R-Texas), the highest-ranking Republican on the Energy and Commerce Committee.
Key House Republicans, echoing in part their industry supporters, favor a wide open auction designed to yield at least $10 billion-$20 billion. Many of Martin’s rules, they said, would needlessly blunt interest in the spectrum, reducing revenue.
“I hope what your takeaway from today’s hearing is that the plan we read about isn’t quite ready for primetime,” said Rep. Fred Upton (R-Mich.), adding that one part of Martin’s plan amounted to “price-fixing.”
Martin wants to apply some Google-favored conditions to about one-third of the spectrum up for sale. Winners of a 22-MHz parcel would need to operate an open network, allowing consumers to use any wireless device and download any application.
“If Google is really right that there is market demand for [its] business model, [it] should be lining up to bid in a fair auction, without [Martin’s] requirements,” Upton said.
Google has promised to bid $4.6 billion, but only if Martin agrees to a more extensive post-auction regulatory scheme that the one currently under debate.
Martin stood his ground before his critics, calling his plans -- which have not been made available for public review -- a “modest step” that would give wireless customers more choices than they have today.
“Currently, American consumers are too often asked to throw away their old phone and buy new ones if they want to switch cell-phone carriers,” Martin said, adding that wireless carriers should not solely determine which applications their customers may download.
Martin’s backers were chiefly Democrats, including House Energy and Commerce Committee chairman Rep. John Dingell of Michigan and Rep. Edward Markey of Massachusetts, who heads the Telecommunications and the Internet Subcommittee.
“The [FCC] has a rare opportunity to promote consumer choice, foster innovation, reinject competition into the wireless marketplace and advance the deployment of broadband services and applications,” Markey said.
Rep. Chip Pickering (R-Miss) was Martin’s most vocal GOP supporter. “I want to commend him philosophically and in principle and for the boldness of what he is trying to accomplish and achieve," Pickering said.
Martin likely has the votes of FCC Democrats Michael Copps and Jonathan Adelstein.
Although Republican Deborah Taylor Tate said she hasn’t made up her mind, she hasn’t abandoned Martin on a key vote since she joined the agency in early 2006.
FCC Republican Robert McDowell said he was “leaning against” a mandated consumer right to attach wireless equipment, adding that the free market might be well on the way toward tearing down “walled-garden” business models in the wireless industry.
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