Today, President Obama will sign a presidential memorandum aiming to make available some 500 megahertz of spectrum for auction, which is currently controlled by the fed and private companies. The effort is based on the FCC’s National Broadband Plan, which encourages the expansion of high-speed wireless broadband services.

Personally, having managed a major oil companies RF as the CTO and VP or Operations, I would have no problem releasing the spectrum, assuming there was a way to decommission the associated towers or infrastructure, that did not impact the company’s bottom line, or allow the towers; for the RF that is being used on communications towers to be sold off “easily” to wireless carriers that would benefit from the spread spectrum.

But my problem, for those of you that frequent this blog, may think that I am “totally” against government intervention, which is not an accurate assessment, I am however in favor of a limited government as our founding fathers had intended; is that I understand the RF/Spectrum is under the control of the FCC, as a National Security Admin imperative issue, but moving the management of the transition of private licensed spectrum to a commercial spectrum, is where I have some concerns.

Asking any administration to manage commerce, is like asking a piranha to watch after the water buffalo that wonders into the river, not only is that a good analogy, but it is accurate in such as you do not want bureaucrats looking after your best interest, when there are so many political action committees wining and dining the government officials, ready to gobble up the benefits that were intended to help the general consumer population.

The Obama administration is seeking to nearly double the wireless communications spectrum available for commercial use over the next 10 years. The director of the National Economic Council and assistant to the president for economic policy, Lawrence H. Summers will be giving a speech in Washington to the New America Foundation, a public policy institute. According to Mr. Summers “This initiative will catalyze private sector investment, contribute to economic growth, and help to create hundreds of thousands of jobs”.

This sounds an awful lot like the government (meaning us taxpayers) takeover of General Motors and a percentage of Chrysler; and with the United Auto Workers Union a 55 percent of Chrysler and 39 percent of GM. I guess when the government who is supported by the UAW, and the UAW go to the bargaining table for contract renewals, it should be streamlined, as both have common self serving interest…

I, like many others am waiting to see what that tax burden looks like to the average consumer, or who is actually the benefiting from the release of new spectrum, as it may enhance the ability to greatly enhance the ability of consumers to send and receive video and data with smart-phones and other hand-held devices.

I am sure that  Cable companies that have invested heavily in wired telecommunications networks could also lose from the new direction, and start filing law suits, so that it becomes a bit more transparent of who is really winning on this play.

Congress would have to designate how the money generated from the 500 megahertz auction auctions should be spent.

Negotiations have been continuing between the White House and federal departments including defense, justice, state, Treasury and energy, which use dedicated government spectrum for official and classified communications.

The Congressional plan seeks to use some of the proceeds to build the public safety network that would allow police and fire departments from different jurisdictions to talk to one another in emergencies — something that generally is not possible now and that was identified as an issue on 9/11.

Which takes us back to the NSA issue mentioned above;  is there a potential security issue looming in the next five years, if the spectrum is used by the federal departments of defense, justice, state, Treasury and energy?

Time will tell.