By Jody McCoy
FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler is receiving all kinds of backlash about his June 25 blog on the FCC website. T-Mobile CEO John Legere submitted an electronic filing expressing his “disappointment in the position you took regarding the Incentive Auction in your blog.” Legere also asked Wheeler to reconsider and “stand strong for American consumers.”Legere wrote, “From the day you took office you have repeated a mantra of competition, competition, competition. However, your recent blog proposes a low-band spectrum reserve that is too small to support a robustly competitive market and is really frustrating. The amount of low-band spectrum you have proposed reserving for competitive carriers is just not enough to support more than one rival to the two dominant players: AT&T and Verizon.” He goes on to say that without arming competitors with sufficient low-band spectrum to challenge Verizon and AT&T there will be a long lasting negative impact on American consumers. “The reality is that a spectrum reserve that is too small to support competition would mean that Verizon and AT&T will win and consumers will lose,” Legere continued. “Therefore, I will continue to fight on behalf of all wireless consumers. This decision is too important to the future of competition for me to ignore. Consumers deserve choice…I urge you to work with the other Commissioners to revisit your position and reconsider the reserve allocation for the Incentive Auction.”
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