How the Election Affects the FCC and Spectrum Sharing

The results of the 6th November election will have its impact not only on jobs, taxes but also on broadband networks and the rules that the FCC will approve. According to a report from Stifel Nicolaus, an investment bank:

"We believe the two Bells would gain the most from a Republican victory and de-regulatory telecom thrust, while some of their rivals would do better under the Democrats, including non-Bell wireless carriers, CLECs, and other upstarts. We suspect that cable will do fairly well under either party, with some risks, and that midsize telcos, DBS, edge/tech giants, and broadcasters face various trade-offs."

Another aspect that could be affected by the result of elections is the broadband spectrum sharing. Harold Feld, a senior vice president with Public Knowledge, explained that in the past few years spectrum has become a partisan issue, which means even something as beneficial as more unlicensed spectrum could become controversial:

"There's a handful of Republicans who hate unlicensed spectrum in the same way that the Grinch hates Christmas. They don't want to let people have access to it for free."

As far as Net neutrality is concerned, Republicans are more skeptical of the need for network neutrality, although Kevin Martin, a Republican appointee, took action against Comcast when it was found to block P2P traffic on its network.

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