KA-POW!: T-Mobile Video Seeks Help from 'FCC Five'
T-Mobile is taking its fight for more low-band spectrum in the upcoming broadcast incentive auction to social media in a new video that portrays Verizon and AT&T as a two-headed (duopoly) comic book villain in need of smashing by the forces of T-Mobile and The FCC Five.
The wireless company had been pushing the FCC to reserve 40 MHz of low-band spectrum for competitive carriers, given how much of that spectrum dominant carriers AT&T and Verizon already have.
FCC chairman Tom Wheeler has proposed leaving the set-aside at 30 MHz, with a vote scheduled for July 16.
T-Mobile CEO John Legere tweeted about and appears in the video, which has the retro feel of a D.C. Batman comic book of the 1960s, calling on consumers to encourage the FCC to fight the evil forces of lobbyists and "the dark force flying in the shadows," the two-headed duopoly monster.
"This is a battle over who will control the future of wireless," T-Mobile said, and if the dreaded duopoly wins, consumers will be stuck with them as gatekeepers for the mobile Internet.
Preventing that, says T-Mobile, is the job of The FCC Five — the commissioners are depicted as a sort of mobile wireless Justice League of hunky super heroes ready to take on the minions of the dark duopoly lords.
Legere appears at the end asking Web surfers to make some noise, saying the FCC is still deciding what to do.
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[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gcKqxVyr-0M[/embed]
Contributing editor John Eggerton has been an editor and/or writer on media regulation, legislation and policy for over four decades, including covering the FCC, FTC, Congress, the major media trade associations, and the federal courts. In addition to Multichannel News and Broadcasting + Cable, his work has appeared in Radio World, TV Technology, TV Fax, This Week in Consumer Electronics, Variety and the Encyclopedia Britannica.