Wireless innovation and spectrum policy: FCC opens a new inquiry [Spectrum Policy and Regulatory Issues

Abstract

In the previous column [1] we introduced the Federal Communications Commission's August 2009 Notice of Inquiry on "Fostering Innovation and Investment in the Wireless Communications Market" [2]. We boldly predicted that the column would be printed after the comment period closed - we were wrong. Due to timely publishing at the IEEE and time extensions at FCC, the issue with the column was delivered a few days before reply comments closed. While we normally do not want to deal with the same issue in consecutive columns, wireless innovation is so key to so much of the readership that we are using this column as an update. While this literally deals with a U.S. domestic regulatory issue, it should be of interest to much of the readership of this publication since the United States is a large market for wireless products, and many wireless policy trends that start in the U.S. forum are often considered by other countries for new approaches to domestic spectrum policy.