I was preparing a quick note on Cavalier Wireless’ ex-parte meeting with staff from Federal Communications Commission chairman Julius Genachowski’s office when I thought about how granular the FCC could get with the interoperability issue in the 700MHz band. The FCC has a docket opened, WT Docket 12-69, to address promotion of operability in this portion of the spectrum.

Cavalier, who met with the FCC on 8 August 2012, wants the agency to move with haste on the FCC’s notice of proposed rulemaking, which came out last March. Cavalier wants the FCC to focus on technical and competitive issues surrounding interoperability.

By interoperability Cavalier would like a ruling that says all mobile devices for the 700 MHz band should be able to operate all over the 700 MHz band. It appears that Cavalier’s customers have handsets that won’t operate in the blocks of spectrum AT&T and Verizon operate it and without roaming agreements, these customers won’t be able to speak to a larger population of AT&T and Verizon wireless consumers.

I don’t have a problem with the FCC determining the rules of the road for infrastructure, i.e. signal propagation, power requirements for antennas, rules on interference, etc., but ordering what type of car can run on the road is another story. An independent, non-governmental body came up with operating standards for the bands of spectrum. Let private parties continue to make decisions on what type of hardware to provide to carriers and determine the frequencies these handsets can operate on.

Handset providers and wireless carriers should maintain their autonomy of contracting for mobile devices.

President Obama may be hearing the word austerity a lot, but it does not show in his fiscal year 2013 budget, at least not for broadband. While there doesn’t appear to be anything specifically related to broadband deployment in the Department of Agriculture’s budget, the Administration makes up for it in the Department of Commerce’s budget.

The Administration is asking for $10 billion to build an interoperable public safety network. During the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, public safety agencies in different agencies had a hard time talking to each. Different equipment and different frequencies compounded the problem ten years ago and that problem still exists today. Standardizing equipment would be a good start in my opinion. Digital radios with a set of frequencies dedicated to that network would be the next step.

Grover Norquist co-authored a piece criticizing the FCC’s foot-dragging on the issue of spectrum access. As a case study, Mr. Norquist refers to the challenges LightSquared is facing from other agencies while the FCC apparently is looking the other way. According to Mr. Norquist, the FCC is pulling a John Kerry double take: I was for LightSquared building a $14 billion 4G network before I was against LightSquared building a $14 billion network.

I did appreciate Mr. Norquist’s take on the FCC’s push for rules that would basically allow the agency to choose to whom spectrum will go and to decide who gets to bid on it in the first place. What the FCC is signaling is not competitive bidding. The FCC should not be picking winners and losers. The Japanese did something similar in the 1990s; picking the industries they felt should survive.

Have you heard of the Lost Decade? This type of economic strategy didn’t help Japan pull out of its economic and financial doldrums. Why should we expect picking favorites to work here in the U.S.?

For all the rhetoric that Congress puts out regarding the benefits our first responders provide us and yet they cannot authorize the transfer of D-block spectrum directly to first responders. Such an allocation would go a long way to innovating and improving communications between multiple jurisdictions. Do we have to see another terrorist attack for the point to be driven home? Should failure of the Joint Special Committee for Deficit Reduction be an excuse for not transferring the D-block?

Vice-President Joe Biden recently touted one of the highlights of the American Jobs Act: the deployment a broadband network for first responders. Mr. Biden stated that the D-block of spectrum, the airwaves necessary for providing a seamless network of connectivity for public safety agencies, would be allocated to them.

The problem with the Act is that it makes mention of voluntary auctions, where broadcast stations would voluntarily give up spectrum (for a price of course) in order to free up spectrum for wireless use.

The administration should persuade the FCC to allocate D-block spectrum directly to first responders, and not make the allocation contingent on voluntary broadcast station auctions, or place any non-profit clearinghouses between first responders and sources of spectrum.