I ran into a good article in Forbes today (Questions Raised Over Broadband Plan) about the upcoming Spectrum sale.

The quick background – the FCC is looking to auction off radio spectrum that is being made available by TV’s shift to digital media. It’s a good way to raise money. (Forbes claims it could be worth $20 billion.) I’ve seen plenty of articles questioning how it will be done and whether or not it is wise for the government to sell such as asset. One debate was whether spectrum (or a portion of the spectrum) should be saved for public safety communication.

The debate raised/observed by Forbes is – should part of it be earmarked for a large wholesale provider to build a large network in an open access model, where smaller providers could rent space or access to the network to provide service to end users?

Apparently such a rule was not included in the latest version of the spectrum proposal – although no rule was added that would exclude a larger wholesaler as a buyer.

This is a big deal because opening up this spectrum means that we could open the door to a whole new genre of broadband providers to join the telephone and cable companies. And the spectrum is an endangered resources of a sorts – access is not unlimited.

The proposal was not made public and apparently won’t be made public in draft format. Voting to approve the proposal could happen as early as July 31, 2007