Obama goal: 98 percent of US covered by 4G

broadband
The president calls for new spectrum auctions to pay for
mobile broadband and a public safety network
By Grant Gross, IDG News Service
February 10, 2011 01:50 PM ET
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Ninety-eight percent of U.S. residents would have access to high-speed mobile broadband
service within five years under a plan that President Barack Obama detailed Thursday.

Obama's proposal, which he alluded to in his State of the Union speech last month, would free up
500MHz of wireless spectrum over a decade by offering to share spectrum auction proceeds with
current spectrum holders, including television stations, that have unused airwaves.

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The cost of the proposal is likely to raise questions from lawmakers, and some backers of
government broadband spending have already raised concerns that the plan would give money
and spectrum to large mobile carriers.

The voluntary incentive actions, also advocated in the U.S. Federal Communications
Commission's national broadband plan released last March, would raise an estimated $27.8
billion over the next decade, the White House said in a fact sheet.

Obama would also spend $10.7 billion to build a nationwide broadband network for public safety
agencies, including police and fire departments. Some lawmakers and public safety officials have
been calling for a national network since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the U.S.

Two-thirds of U.S. Internet users lack fast broadband

Obama's plan would include a one-time outlay of $5 billion to bring mobile broadband to areas
unlikely to be served by commercial providers without subsidies. Another $3 billion of the
spectrum auction fees would go to wireless broadband research and development.

The $5 billion for mobile broadband would be focused on 4G technologies, the White House
said.

"America's businesses are building out 4G networks to much of the nation," the White House
said in a statement. "Nevertheless, absent additional government investment, millions of
Americans will not be able to participate in the 4G revolution. This investment will ... extend
access from the almost 95 percent of Americans who have 3G wireless services today to at least
98 percent of all Americans gaining access to state-of-the-art 4G high-speed wireless services
within five years."

About $9.6 billion of the auction proceeds would go toward the U.S. government's budget
deficit, the White House said.

Obama, in a speech at Northern Michigan University, said government funding is needed to

bring broadband to rural areas. He compared his mobile broadband proposal to government-
supported build-outs of railroads, interstate highways, and the electric grid in past centuries.

"This is a new century," Obama said. "We can't expect tomorrow's economy to take root using
yesterday's infrastructure."

While about 90% of South Koreans subscribe to broadband service, only about 65% of U.S.
residents do, he added. "When it comes to high-speed Internet, the lights are still off in a third of
our households," he said. 

Obama was scheduled to talk more about the mobile broadband goals Thursday afternoon at
Northern Michigan University.

Several groups focused on improving broadband praised the president's plan.

"As many have observed, wireless Internet access is the wave of the future and a source of jobs
and innovation," Harold Feld, legal director of Public Knowledge, said in an e-mail. "The
investments promoted by the administration would, if implemented, go a long way to bringing
next generation wireless service to areas which may not receive it any other way."

Feld, however, questioned the administration's estimates of revenue from spectrum auctions. The
proposed incentive auctions do not yet have approval from Congress.

"It is not at all clear that incentive auctions or reverse auctions will take place," he said. "Even
under circumstances of familiar auction procedures, estimates of revenue can [vary] greatly from
what is actually achieved. Important spending for our future should not depend on the vagaries of
auctions."
Free Press, another supporter of broadband improvements, questioned whether the auctions
would supply spectrum to the small number of current mobile providers. Obama's plan focuses
on the wrong goal, Free Press Research Director Derek Turner wrote in a Politico opinion piece
Thursday.

Instead of focusing on mobile broadband deployment, when nearly all U.S. residents have
mobile service available now, Obama should focus on improving broadband adoption and
providing competition to the large mobile and broadband providers, Turner wrote.

This week, the FCC released a proposal to fund broadband deployment by redirecting billions of
dollars from a fund that now subsidizes traditional telephone service.

"The president's message Thursday, coming on the heels of this costly proposal, highlights a
disconnect in our policy thinking," Turner wrote. "Why should taxpayers fund the build-out of
broadband networks, when the government could just require that profitable wireless companies
pay for it -- in exchange for use of public airwaves?"

Grant Gross covers technology and telecom policy in the U.S. government for The IDG News
Service. Follow Grant on Twitter at GrantGross. Grant's e-mail address is
grant_gross@idg.com.

The IDG News Service is a Network World affiliate.