Scott Cleland, president of Precursor Group and chairman of Net
Competition (members include the National Cable and Telecommunications
Association and the American Cable Association and major wireless carriers),
says that the problem with spectrum availability is government hoarding.
In a blog posting, Cleland used words like
"scandalous," "mismanagement" and "dysfunction"
to describe what he said was the government's "waste, fraud and abuse"
of the precious resource of spectrum.
He says the government has been wrongly pointing fingers at
the wireless private sector for lack of competition, availability and affordability
when the government is hoarding 85% of spectrum.
Cleland also said the government's role as hoarders-in-chief
had been ignored by industry, watchdog groups and Congress.
There are administration efforts, overseen by the National
Telecommunications and Information Administration, to free up some government
spectrum, either by reclamation or sharing, but not nearly the 1,400 MHz
Cleland says it could give up were the government to control only 30% of that
spectrum, as it does about 30% of land in the country.
