A wholesale open-access license for a major chunk of the 700 MHz band would dramatically expand the number of competitors offering mobile voice and Internet access. This would be a huge public policy breakthrough for American broadband. Like the Internet, wireless would have a sandbox for innovation. Small entrepreneurs with novel ideas could bring products to market and get direct consumer feedback. No more groveling to the marketing departments of the cellular carriers for an opening. If you have a good idea, build it. “Let the market decide” would mean let consumers, not some telco executive, decide.
Four Principles
To achieve this vision of a healthy, competitive wireless industry, open access must include four basic principles: open devices, open services, open applications, and—crucially—open networks. We must open a portion of the 700 MHz band to a wholesale operator with the incentive to sell affordable access to this valuable spectrum to all third-party service providers.