Stop the Airwaves Giveaway : In light of TV industry’s balking, FCC should press for an auction

Next Thursday, the Federal Communications Commission will discuss its plans to give away a substantial portion of the broadcast spectrum--worth about $70 billion--to the television broadcasting industry in exchange for the industry’s developing programs for high-definition TV. The technology is capable of producing amazingly crisp, photo-quality pictures, pictures with triple the resolution of standard TV technology.

In recent months, however, the industry, citing lack of public interest in HDTV, has said it will use much of the new spectrum for “ancillary services” like cellular phone calling, Internet transmissions and pagers.

Now Reed Hundt, the FCC chairman, has threatened to delay the agency’s final decision. He should make good on that threat.

It’s clear that the broadcasters have little intention of fulfilling the promises they made when the government originally agreed to give them a valuable part of the broadcasting spectrum. This week, broadcasters said they will try to accelerate their timetable for broadcasting HDTV signals. But that’s too little too late. And, anyway, what seems to interest the broadcasters most is using the airwaves for cell phones, pagers and other valuable information services.

The industry is not entirely free to take the $70-billion spectrum and run. A bill passed by Congress last year says that broadcasters offering such ancillary services must pay the government fees equivalent to those that would have been recovered had the federal government decided to sell the airwaves to private communications industries.

However, the better course would be to just auction the spectrum so that its true value can be realized by the American people. Chairman Hundt and the FCC commissioners should delay the agency’s decision and rethink their position.

As Sen. John McCain said in a statement released Thursday, “In light of the huge federal budget deficit and the commitment by the president and Congress to balance the budget within the next several years, the failure to auction digital channels will force more severe budget cuts in other federal programs. My view was, still is and will continue to be that this is terrible public policy.”