Alms for Hundt's Frontline Wireless...

Some folks have no shame.

• Comm Daily reported today that the economist from Reed Hundt's Frontline Wireless, was pleading poverty to reporters about the effect the sub-prime lending problems are having on their ability to bid in the 700 MHz auction.
  • "The rising cost of capital means spectrum auction bidders will pay 50% more in interest to buy licenses in the 700 MHz band, said an economist hired by Frontline Wireless told reporters Thursday. "this could be a catastrophe," said Gregg Rosston of Stanford University." 
    • Hurricane Katrina was a "catastrophe."
    • Not enough corporate welfare for Silicon Valley financiers -- does not qualify as a "catastrophe."  

Frontline's presumption of "entitlement" and "special treatment" in this 700 Mhz auction is truly shameless.

• "Besides not factoring in the sub-prime crisis and its after-effects, the FCC did not appear to account for the build-out, open access, and public safety requirements that apply variously to the auction bands, said Rosston..." 

Hello Frontline?

• This is supposed to be a public free-market AUCTION.
  • In auctions -- the HIGHEST BIDDER WINS.  
• This auction is not a corporate welfare program for Silicon Valley financiers.

If the costs of the spectrum, building the network, and operating it exceed Frontline's open access model revenue projections, maybe the problem is in Frontline's experimental open access business model and not the fair market costs to run a national wireless network.

• Is business only fair if Frontline is guaranteed success?   

Can anyone tell me what a company pleading poverty is doing in a auction for the Nation's most valuable wireless spectrum?

Bottomline: The FCC and the US Government are not suckers.

• If a company is not competent enough to anticipate interest rate fluctuations, and complains about the cost of build out and operation before they have even gotten started, they are wireless wannabes and not for real.

Moreover Frontline... it is exceptionally bad form to complain about the cost of regulations that Frontline vociferously advocated for. Frontline should be thanking the FCC for what it weaseled out of the process so far, not complaining for more. 

• Is there no shame?