Carving Up The Wireless Spectrum

Frontline is also trying to amass political clout. The company has tapped Janice Obuchowski, who was a telecommunications policy official in the George H.W. Bush administration, as chairman. Mark Fowler, who was FCC chairman under President Ronald Reagan, also joined as an investor.

Founded in February, Frontline is a latecomer to the auction. The upstart needs as much financial and political support as it can muster as it goes head-to-head against deep-pocketed phone companies AT&T and Verizon, both of which oppose Frontline's proposal for an open-access network but have not publicly discussed their plans for the spectrum. Hundt has challenged both companies to debate the merits of his proposal.

"You don't like our plan? Then what's your plan?" Hundt said, throwing his hands up in the conference room of the firm's 13th Street office. "We're not trying to tug at Superman's cape here. We're just saying, 'Come give us an alternative.' "

Frontline's proposal is gaining traction in the FCC, due in part to Chairman Kevin Martin's favorable comments about it during last month's open meeting. Internet giants like Google and public-safety contractors like Northrop Grumman have stepped behind Frontline's plan. And key lawmakers, including Rep. John D. Dingell (D-Mich.), chairman of the Energy and Commerce Committee, and Rep. Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.), chairman of that panel's subcommittee on telecommunications and the Internet, have also shown support.

But there are plenty of critics. Last week, 12 Republicans and four Democrats on the House Energy and Commerce Committee sent a letter urging the FCC to reject the plan, calling it an "eleventh-hour proposal" that is "short on specifics, leaving doubt whether the business plan and proposed network will really work."

While some analysts say winning the auction is a long shot, Frontline could clear the first hurdle of getting its ideas for a nationwide open network and public safety access written into the auction rules, which are expected to be released this month.

"You see more and more companies coming out in support of this," said Rep. Charles W. "Chip" Pickering Jr. (R-Miss.), who is on the commerce committee. He said the biggest opposition will come from AT&T and Verizon, "but the competitive benefits of this proposal can dramatically change the wireless marketplace over the next five to 10 years."

Spurring innovation was the main reason Shriram became Frontline's first investor.

"My interest in this was sparked by the desire to help the next little Google in a garage that doesn't have access to a wireless network to deploy their service," he said.

But Frontline's opposition is formidable, Hundt acknowledged. And he knows what it's like to have an auction go wrong. In 1996, Hundt oversaw the auction of spectrum licenses to NextWave Telecom for more than $4 billion. But the company went bankrupt before it could paid the bill.

"When you hold an auction that is an economic catastrophe, you spend the rest of your life apologizing for it," he said.

Blair Levin, who was Hundt's chief of staff at the FCC and is an analyst at Stifel Nicolaus, said Frontline has a slim chance of winning the auction. But Hundt's efforts may help pave the way for a national network that benefits both commercial carriers and public safety workers.

"I don't think he will succeed," Levin said, "but he has moved the ball extraordinarily far."