Strangely enough, the US Federal Communications Commission is now sort of a champion of consumer and small-business rights. The FCC once again rejected heavy pressure from those "wireless cartels" (described by former chairman of the Federal Communications Commission Reed Hundt) and said it won't budge on the rules it announced for the 700 Mhz spectrum.

Specifically, the FCC requires winning bidders for a certain portion of the 700 MHz spectrum called the "C-block" open up their services to their customers' choice of equipment.

FCC Chairman Kevin Martin said "I don't have any plans to try to revise our open-platform rule the way Verizon wants us to." Furthermore, he told the House Small Business Committee yesterday:

"The companies that operate on this spectrum will not be allowed to prevent consumers from using the wireless device or software of their choice on the licensees' networks. It is our goal that this open platform requirement will allow smaller businesses - namely, nascent wireless device manufacturers and smaller application software developers - to put their products directly into the hands of consumers without having to seek prior permission from the wireless providers, as they do today."

The auction, which was postponed by a week, is expected to raise at least $10 billion for the U.S. government from airwaves being returned by television broadcasters as they move to digital from analog signals in early 2009. The official date for the auction is now eight days later than previously announced, on January 24, 2008, reportedly as a small concession to companies deciding whether they still wanted to bid.

The open-access rules were adopted by the FCC at the suggestions brought by Frontline Wireless and Google. Verizon Wireless responded by filing suit in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia September 10 seeking to overturn the open-access rules. Verizon had sought an expedited hearing, but fortunately for now the court denied the request.

However, Verizon is only spearheading these efforts to shoot down open-access, as 139 small and regional wireless carriers, signed a letter urging Congress and the FCC to abandon them.