Despite puffery over 700 MHz "3rd pipe" -- the market is solving it

You gotta love how the free market works when left alone by the Government!

Just as Frontline and others are demanding that the government has to intervene in the 700 MHz auction to "create" a third broadband pipe, the free market finds another way to solve these market problems without the Government.

One of the most significant developments in the spectrum world today was not the hot air at the Senate Commerce Committee hearing, but what happened in the free market -- DirecTV and Echostar signing agreements with Clearwire to sell their WiMax broadband service.

Clearwire, founded by wireless pioneer Craig McCaw, and well funded with investments from Intel and a public offering is a bonafide pioneer in the competitive wireless broadband sector.

• They have the spectrum, the funding and now two national pay TV partners that serve over 25 million Americans.
• They are the real deal. 
• ClearWire is still at the early stage of building out its national network, but they are years ahead of where Frontline Wireless or Cyren Call would be if they had to wait for the 700 MHz spectrum to become unencumbered in the DTV transition.

My point is that there are already many "third" broadband pipes developing nationally. Verizon, Sprint, AT&T, and T-Mobile are all well on their way building out national broadband wireless networks.

• The call for a "third" broadband pipe fails to recognize how the free market is already producing on its own many more broadband pipes, not just three.