IP: All-but-secret battle rages over fate of airwaves

[David Farber <dave@farber.net>]

>Date: Wed, 05 Sep 2001 14:06:37 -0700
>From: "Robert J. Berger" <rberger@ultradevices.com>
>
>I knew I wasn't hallucinating that the Broadcasters are trying to get paid 
>for Spectrum that they don't really own....
>
>USA Today Guest Editorial
>09/04/2001 - Updated 08:22 PM ET
>All-but-secret battle rages over fate of airwaves
>http://www.usatoday.com/news/comment/2001-09-05-ncguest1.htm
>By Norman Ornstein
>
>Forget Star Wars, the moniker for missile defense, which looms ahead
>as one of the classic Washington battles, pitting skeptical Democrats
>in Congress against a determined president and his Republican
>congressional leaders. It has already received tons of ink and
>airtime.  There is another battle ahead that has been virtually
>ignored in newspapers and on the airwaves that will dwarf Star
>Wars. Call it "Spectrum Wars."
>
>Here are the basics. The world is moving rapidly toward a new era in
>telecommunications: the wireless world. Already close to reality in
>Europe, this new world will integrate cellphones, personal data
>assistants such as PalmPilots, computers and the Internet, allowing
>one to communicate with anybody and get instant information from
>anywhere no matter where one is in the world.
>
><snip>
>
>That, of course, is not what broadcasters had in mind when they threw
>their institutional weight behind the Pickering-Upton plan. So the
>National Association of Broadcasters is floating a new idea on Capitol
>Hill: Let the broadcasters auction off their analog spectrum and use
>the revenues to accelerate the rollout of DTV.
>
>The audacity of this idea is breathtaking. After Congress gave
>broadcasters public airwaves worth $70 billion ? or far more ?
>on the condition that they would return their analog spectrum to the
>public in a timely fashion, they now want to keep both, auction one
>off and pocket the proceeds!
>
>The public knows little about this; even some experts are unaware of
>the machinations. Not surprisingly, television has not covered it. But
>the consequences, for all of us, are staggering. Given the stakes, and
>the power of the players, it will get attention eventually ? but if
>past experience is any guide, only after the critical decisions have
>been made. Maybe some reporter, somewhere, now will decide to focus
>his or her attention on a potential $200-billion rape of the American
>taxpayer.
>
>Norman Ornstein is a senior resident scholar at the American
>Enterprise Institute and a member of USA TODAY's board of
>contributors.
>--



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