FCC wireless auction ruling: mixed bag for open access advocates

The agency voted to approve rules for an auction of broadcast spectrum that the F.C.C. chairman, Kevin J. Martin, had said would promote new consumer services. The F.C.C. rules will allow customers to use whatever phone and software they want on networks using about one-third of the spectrum to be auctioned.

The F.C.C. did not approve a provision that would have required the winner of the auction to sell access to its network on a wholesale basis to other companies.

In recent weeks Google and other technology interests pressed the commission to create an open-access wireless network — in contrast to today’s closed cellular networks — and to allow owners of the spectrum to sell portions of it wholesale to other companies. That would loosen the carriers’ grip on service offerings and might also open the door to new entrants like Google.

In the model proposed by Google and new entrants to the market, consumers would be able to buy a wireless phone at a store, but instead of being forced to use a specific carrier, they would be free to pick any carrier. Moreover, instead of wireless carriers’ choosing what software goes on their phones, users would be free to put any software they want on them.