130 | Business World Magazine |
January 2014
get the rules right and ensure all carriers
have the opportunity to participate. One
of the things we fought for was making
sure the FCC can design competitive auc-
tions so smaller carriers, competitive car-
riers, will have an opportunity to bid and
potentially win in the 600 MHz auction.
That was a huge win last year, which will
both provide all carriers with meaningful
opportunities to bid for needed spectrum
and increase the total number of bidders,
and in turn revenue, for use of a finite,
taxpayer-owned resource.
Another huge policy win last year – in-
teroperability. While interoperability was
once a given in the wireless industry, over
the last several years, AT&T and Verizon
utilized nongovernmental standards set-
ting bodies to create their own unique,
boutique band classes with specifications
for handset providers, so their devices
would not operate on anyone else’s spec-
trum and vice versa. For a small carriers,
not getting access to the latest, iconic de-
vices can be devastating, and these actions
left smaller carriers outside of an equip-
ment “ecosystem.” With hard work of
the Commission, support from Congress,
