NEWS
Federal Communications Commission
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This is an unofficial announcement of Commission action.  Release of the full text of a Commission order constitutes official action.
See MCI v. FCC. 515 F 2d 385 (D.C. Circ 1974).
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE     NEWS MEDIA CONTACTS
October 29, 2010 David Fiske (202) 418-0513
FCC LAUNCHES NEW STAFF WORKING PAPER SERIES
First Two Papers Give a Historical Review of Pivotal FCC Decisions
And a Review of Minimum Subsidy Auctions 
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) today released the first two of its new FCC Staff 
Working Papers.  This agency-wide research paper series replaces all of the earlier working paper series 
that had been issued by individual bureaus and offices.  It is intended to encourage staff research that 
furthers the “expert” function of the agency and builds agency intellectual capital.  This active research 
program is managed by the Office of Strategic Planning and Policy Analysis (OSP).
The first paper in this series is “Transformative Choices:  A Review of 70 Years of FCC Decisions” by 
Sherille Ismail, a Senior Attorney in OSP.  The paper presents a historical review of a series of pivotal 
FCC decisions that helped shape today’s communications landscape.  It finds that there have been a 
number of successful efforts by the FCC, before and after the 1970s, to promote new entrants, especially 
in the markets for commercial radio, cable television, telephone equipment, and direct broadcast satellites.  
The second paper is “Maximum Impact for Minimum Subsidy:  Reverse Auctions for Universal Access in 
Chile and India,” by Irene Wu, Acting Chief Data Officer for the International Bureau.  Dr. Wu argues 
that government funding for universal service and broadband support programs could be quicker and 
more efficient if the FCC were to use reverse auctions (also called “minimum subsidy auctions”) to 
support those programs.  Toward that end, she examines the implementation of such auctions in the last 
15 years in Chile and India.  
The full text of both working papers is available at http://www.fcc.gov/papers/.  The OSP contact is 
Chuck Needy, who can be reached at chuck.needy@fcc.gov.   
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