PRESIDENT'S PLAN TO RAISE $28 BILLION AND BRING 4G TO EVERYONE

President Obama announced a plan today to free up 500 MHz worth of spectrum for wireless Internet and mobile network use over the next 10 years. Alleged crowding of the spectrum has been a concern for some time, but Obama hopes to incentivize current users to give up the chunks of spectrum they occupy by giving them a cut of the spectrum's sale at auction, and then using some of that money to reimburse the rollout of wireless and 4G to 98 percent of the country.

By letting the current owners (read: broadcast TV stations) of needed or unused spectrum volunteer their frequencies for auction, Obama hopes to raise funds in the neighborhood of $27.8 billion. He hopes this will offset some of the investments he wants to make in mobile and wireless: $5 billion would go to investment in building out 4G networks into rural areas, $3 billion would go to 4G-related research and development, $10.7 billion would go to building a wireless public safety network, and the balance would go toward paying down the deficit.

Of course, the desired frequencies may not draw that much at auction, and potential buyers like AT&T or Sprint are big enough in size and small enough in number that they could hold out against high prices. Selling frequencies will also be voluntary, at least at first, so it may be tough to get owners to give them up.

The government is doing its part to make sure the program is well on its way: Obama announced that the government will start by freeing up 115 MHz of federal spectrum by using frequencies more efficiently, and it plans to open another 95 MHz the same way.

But space and access to wireless or mobile connections may not be the problem; Free Press research director S. Derek Turner notes that "according to the FCC's own data, 98 percent of households in the United States already have access to wireless broadband service, while less than one-third subscribe to it." Nothing in the plan encourages them to adopt it, Turner said.