Senate Support Grows for Spectrum Audit Proposed in Snowe-Kerry Bill
Senate legislation requiring a national accounting of spectrum in federal hands has broad bipartisan support and is gaining steam on Capitol Hill, Brian Rice, aide to Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass, said Tuesday. At the Wireless Communications Association show, Rice said Sens. Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas, ranking member of the Commerce Committee, and John Warner, D-Va., on Tuesday signed on as co-sponsors of the bill. Kerry and Sen. Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, are the primary sponsors.
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Commerce Committee Chairman Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., has yet to schedule a markup on the bill. The House is watching closely, and may follow the Senate lead in moving forward on legislation, Hill officials said.
“This bill obviously has broad bipartisan support on the committee,” Rice said. “Senator Kerry is hopeful that we can push it through, but more importantly we think there’s a consensus here.” While some want legislation with target goals for identifying spectrum to be set aside for eventual auction, Kerry is reluctant to make that part of the bill, Rice said. “You can’t put the cart before the horse,” he said. “Writing the bill is the easiest part. The most difficult is NTIA having to go to the agencies that have the spectrum and say, how are you using it? … How efficiently are you really putting the spectrum to use?”
The Department of Defense and other national security spectrum information must be protected, Rice added. “I don’t think any of us would really want that information to be made public.” He said the committee will work out language on protecting sensitive spectrum as the bill moves forward.
Ira Keltz, deputy director of the FCC Office of Engineering and Technology, warned that many questions must be addressed before an audit can be undertaken by the government. “It sounds easy … but how you actually pull it off is not straightforward,” Keltz said. “In the broadband NOI the commission put out, we did tee this issue up and we did specifically ask questions on whether the commission should conduct a spectrum inventory.”
“Ira is right,” said Martin Copper, executive chairman of ArrayComm. “The spectrum that can be made available is already being used by someone, but less effectively than it can be … It’s a very difficult problem taking an inventory … It seems like whenever we talk about spectrum reform what we really mean is why don’t we get some spectrum from the Defense Department or the broadcasters and put it to a higher use.”
Identifying a major block of spectrum for an auction could be difficult, said Gigi Sohn, president of Public Knowledge. “The folks in my organization don’t think there is such a block that you could cobble together.” Regardless, the federal government should be required to audit its spectrum holdings, she said. “The biggest question is how much spectrum is out there,” Sohn said. “We don’t know. Frankly, it’s a travesty that we don’t know.”
Getting a better handle on spectrum holdings makes sense, said Jane Mago, NAB general counsel. “We agree that data is important,” she said. “It’s important to have a full understanding of what spectrum is being used for before you start making rash judgments and following what I call all the little shiny objects.” -- Howard Buskirk
WCA Notebook…
Jennifer Richter of Patton Boggs said wireless broadband has finally hit its stride after decades of preparation. “If you go to New York to any of these investment conferences where the investment banks and venture capitalists talk about where they're investing their money, they'll tell you they're investing in wireless broadband,” Richter said. “They think that’s the best big wave of growth for our communications industry.” Richter noted that of the 75 or so substantial comments filed at the FCC on its rural broadband strategy, about one third focused on wireless broadband. “That’s really surprising,” she said. “It’s a great validation of what we've been doing the last couple of decades.”