Posted by: AT&T Blog Team on February 2, 2012 at 12:23 pm
As reported in today’s Communications Daily, former FCC Chairman Reed Hundt concedes Commission mistakes in the spectrum auction that involved NextWave, yet he is still pushing for FCC discretion in future spectrum auctions. The following may be attributed to Jim Cicconi, AT&T Senior Executive Vice President of External & Legislative Affairs:
“As Reed admits, Congress gave the FCC discretion in the PCS C Block auction, and it used that discretion in a way that resulted in an auction that was a disaster for the industry and for the Treasury. And the flaw, in our view, was not simply a function of installment payments. It was the decision to have a closed versus an open auction. Our point is that an auction should be open to all competitors, not just to those hand picked by the FCC. Reed was a good and diligent chairman, and it’s characteristic of him that he’d acknowledge a mistake. But Congress has every right to learn from those mistakes, and to insist the FCC not repeat them. That’s what the House spectrum bill does. The FCC should get behind it and put the interests of the country first so that we can quickly move forward to address the looming spectrum crisis that we all agree is the biggest threat to innovation, job creation and growth for the wireless industry.”
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Posted by: AT&T Blog Team on February 1, 2012 at 12:41 pm
Jim Cicconi, AT&T Senior Executive Vice President of External & Legislative Affairs, responds to comments made by former FCC Chairman Reed Hundt regarding spectrum auctions:
“Despite Reed Hundt’s recollection, the FCC’s track record on auctions is not an unbroken string of successes. In fact, Hundt’s tenure saw perhaps the biggest single fiasco of this sort, the PCS C Block auction. In that situation, the FCC used its discretion in a way that set aside valuable spectrum for ‘designated entities’, and excluded otherwise qualified companies from bidding. Over half of the 493 licenses from that auction were later returned to the government for non-payment, and the licenses of the largest winner, NextWave, were tied up in bankruptcy litigation for years. In that case, the FCC’s use of its ‘discretion’ ended up costing the U.S. Treasury billions, and left vitally needed spectrum unused for years.
“No one is suggesting the FCC’s conduct of auctions be micro-managed. But Congress – not the FCC – sets policy, especially when it directly impacts revenue needed for deficit reduction. And there is no more fundamental policy point than whether a spectrum auction should be open or closed. Congress has every right to tell the FCC it should not be picking winners and losers in the wireless market, or using its ‘discretion’ to tilt the playing field. We need open auctions where every competitor has a fair chance to participate, and that is what the House bill provides.”
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Posted by: Bob Quinn on January 27, 2012 at 3:48 pm
The business, education and advocacy communities have joined forces to observe Data Privacy Day tomorrow. In the past several days, programs have been held around to world to raise awareness about privacy issues. We at AT&T were delighted to take part by sponsoring and participating in a National Cyber Security Alliance forum, which was held yesterday in Washington.
As AT&T’s Chief Privacy Officer, every day is privacy day for me and my team It’s a topic we’re thinking about, talking about and acting upon on an ongoing basis. We work hard to anticipate and prepare for developments in the constantly changing world of privacy. Recently, for example, we have been focusing on instilling best privacy practices in our work with apps developers and online behavioral advertising.
At AT&T, we’ve long recognized that our privacy commitments are fundamental to the way we do business every day.
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