The US Federal Communications Commission ruled on Tuesday that a valuable chunk of wireless spectrum will be open to whatever mobile devices Americans want to use, amounting to a political setback for traditional telephone companies and a partial win for Google.
As was hinted in recent weeks, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) approved that requirement as part of broader rules for auctioning licences in the coveted 700MHz analogue television band. The vote was technically 5-0, although one commissioner delivered a blistering critique of the so-called "open access" requirement.
Congress has mandated the airwaves in the 700MHz band be vacated in February 2009, forcing analogue TV broadcasters off those channels as part of a long-anticipated switch to all-digital television. Current and would-be wireless broadband operators are eager to get their hands on the spectrum because of its inherent scientific properties, which allow signals to travel further and more easily penetrate walls.
FCC chairman Kevin Martin said Tuesday's action indicates the agency's commitment "to ensuring that the fruits of wireless innovation swiftly pass into the hands of consumers".
"While I recognise the rules we are adopting today may not be the garment any one company wants, the public interest is not what any one company wants, it's about serving the people," Martin added.
But companies such as Google, along with several consumer activist groups, see the current rules as only a partial victory. While they praised the commission for taking a first step in offering consumers more choice in terms of devices and applications they will use on these new networks, they also criticised the commission for not going far enough.
They argue that without a comprehensive set of "open access" rules that also requires licence winners to wholesale network capacity at affordable prices, there's no guarantee that well-entrenched wireless operators won't restrict consumer choices on the new spectrum.
