The United States Justice Department and the National Telecommunications and Information Administration are asking the Federal Communications Commission to free up more wireless spectrum to connect more Americans to broadband. The NTIA is asking for an additional 800 MHz of spectrum to be released, which is huge when you consider that today the U.S. only has 500 MHz of spectrum allocated today. The U.S. Justice Department is also asking for more spectrum; they didn’t give any numbers as to how much, but they did emphasize that they would like to make it more difficult for current wireless providers to purchase the new spectrum. Both government departments simply want to encourage competition. Most U.S. broadband customers are limited to the duopoly that services their area. The additional spectrum would create a competitive third option.
“The scarcity of spectrum is a fundamental obstacle that the commission should address,” the Justice Department said. “Reallocating spectrum that is being underutilized would encourage the deployment of wireless services and could help to make such services more competitive with wireline offerings.”
