The Hill News

Congress is now considering legislation to grant the FCC new authority to hold voluntary incentive auctions for spectrum.  This legislation would alleviate shortages of spectrum that are threatening to hold back the development of a wireless broadband platform capable of competing with wireline platforms.  It would boost the economy and advance our progress toward a more efficient, market-oriented spectrum regime.
 
The incentive-auction idea, which came out of the Obama Administration’s Broadband Task Force, is aimed at freeing up some of the 120 MHz of spectrum currently used by broadcast TV to make it available for the new wireless usesâ€"primarily broadbandâ€"that consumers (and businesses) are demanding.  The benefits of such a move are clear:  while wireless broadband use is soaring even though consumers have to pay for it, only about 10 percent of TV viewers watch over over-the-air broadcasting even though it is free. 

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