The FCC revised rules for auctioning off the 700 MHz band in order to "promote the creation of a nationwide interoperable broadband network for public safety and to facilitate the availability of new and innovative wireless broadband services for consumers," the commission said.

 

The rules for the upcoming auction, to take place no later than January 28 of next year, include a requirement that the winner allow any device or software to be connected to their airwaves. The FCC also established a framework for a 700 MHz Public Safety/Private Partnership between the licensee for one of the commercial spectrum blocks and the licensee for the public safety spectrum.

 

The partnership will require the commercial licensee to build out a nationwide broadband network that would be interoperable and used for public safety. But the FCC didn't deliver good news to potential bidder Google and coalitions that have been lobbying for a provision that would require the auction winner to resell access to its network on a wholesale basis.

 

The wholesale licensing requirement wasn't approved. Ben Scott, policy director at consumer advocacy organization Free Press, called the FCC's decision "a small step forward for consumer choice in mobile phones, but a large step back for genuine broadband competition that could bring the benefits of the Internet to all Americans." Without a model where third parties can use wireless services from a 700-MHz licensee at wholesale prices, opportunities for broadband competition are lost, Scott said.

 

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