The $44 Billion Wireless Windfall

摘要

Tom Wheeler, the chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, doesn't normally have much to crow about, but he could scarcely contain his glee at a press conference in mid-December as he reported that the agency had unexpectedly earned billions of dollars for the federal government. The money comes from the FCC's public auction of licenses for access to radio-frequency spectrum, the airwaves used to transmit wireless data to cell phones. Before the auction opened in November, the FCC set the reserve price at $10.6 billion. By Dec. 17 the bidding had passed $44 billion. "I think it is pretty safe to say that the auction is a success," Wheeler said.