This is the news item:
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http://transition.fcc.gov/Daily_Releases/Daily_Business/2018/db0104/DOC-348552A1.pdf
WASHINGTON, January 4, 2018-The Institute for Operations Research and the
Management Sciences (INFORMS) today announced that it has selected the Federal
Communications Commission as one of six finalists for the 47th annual Franz
Edelman Award for Achievements in Operations Research and Management Science,
which recognizes corporate, non-profit, and governmental organizations that
have used operations research and related tools to solve complex problems.
Chairman Ajit Pai issued the following statement:
"The FCC is deeply honored to be one of the six finalists for this prestigious
award, and I am pleased that INFORMS has recognized the groundbreaking
accomplishment of our incentive auction team. This auction would not have been
possible without the use of operations research tools to solve complicated
design and implementation challenges. The success of these tools speaks for
itself, and the team's work is exemplary of the data-driven approach to
policymaking that I believe should be this agency's hallmark.
I congratulate the entire incentive auction team for this great honor."
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More info:
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https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/2018-informs-franz-edelman-award-finalists-selected-from-leading-analytics-teams-around-the-world-300577705.html
The Federal Communications Commission recently completed the world's first
two-sided auction of valuable low-band electromagnetic spectrum, reclaiming
channels from TV broadcasters to meet the exploding demand for wireless
services. The Commission purchased spectrum from TV broadcasters, sold the
acquired spectrum to wireless providers, and assigned the remaining
broadcasters to new channels in a smaller TV band. Operations research tools,
including optimization software and satisfiability solvers, were essential to
the spectrum clearing target calculations, auction winner determinations, and
final TV channel assignments. The auction repurposed 84 MHz of TV spectrum for
wireless use, raised nearly $20 billion in revenue, paid over $10 billion to
winning broadcasters, provided nearly $2 billion for relocation costs for
non-winning broadcasters, and contributed over $7 billion to reduce the federal
deficit. The final channel assignments, which included all 2,900 U.S. and
Canadian TV stations, enabled 78 percent of the stations to remain on their
existing channels, providing an estimated savings of more than $200 million in
relocation costs.
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Congrats to the FCC. Although, IMO, the main benefit shown so far has to do
with getting money back into government coffers, which will be paid one way or
another by the CONSUMER. The technical benefit, to wireless broadband, is yet
to be demonstrated. My take is, for expansion of fixed wireless in rural areas,
the same technical result can be achieved with use of white spaces. That could
have happened WITHOUT having companies pay billions of dollars for spectrum,
which they will now have to recoup.
OR is the applied math that deals with defining objective functions, taking
into account a set of constraint equations, to come up with optimal solutions.
If the objective is to move money around to provide an overall reduction in
government deficit, $7B is nothing to sneeze at. Just keep in mind where it's
coming from.
However, let's not pretend that this has diddly to do with *this* FCC, and its
frantic and reckless warpath to deregulate everything, to favor a small number
of special interests. And most specifically, its reckless attempt to abolish
our century-old net neutrality guarantees. Industry self-regulation ONLY works
in the presence of ample competition. Failing that, and sometimes ample
competition is simply not possible, external knobs are required. This FCC is
using religious fervor, hardly facts, to make its decisions.
Bert
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