http://www.wired.com/techbiz/people/news/2007/08/farber_qa
We asked David Farber -- whom Wired previously called "the
Paul Revere of the digital revolution" -- to weigh in on the
spectrum auction, how the process will work and why he says
this spectrum is so "yummy."
Famous for his "Farberisms" (the Yogi Berra of the
internet?), the Carnegie Mellon professor remains a pivotal
figure in the communications industry. In addition to his
varied positions in academia, Farber served a brief stint as
chief technologist at the Federal Communications Commission
in 2000. He also co-founded Caine, Farber & Gordon, a
leading supplier of software-design methodology, and is on a
number of industrial advisory and management boards,
including NTT DoCoMo, Boingo, Rainmaker and E-tenna.
Wired News: We now have an official date for the 700-MHz
spectrum auction -- January 16, 2008. What's really at stake
here? Do companies actually own the spectrum when they win a
bid, or is it more like a lease?
David Farber: I'm not a regulatory lawyer, so I can give you
a casual view of it, which is probably pretty accurate --
but there are a lot of things that are tricky in this case.
First of all, when you get spectrum from the FCC,
technically you don't own it. You get a license to use it in
the public's interest. Past history has shown that it's
almost impossible to get that spectrum back. The FCC has
tried sometimes, (when) the companies that used it when
bankrupt or something, and it's been relatively impossible
to get it back.
<snip>
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