Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., urged Congress to conduct a spectrum...
Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., urged Congress to conduct a spectrum inventory in order to figure out “what is actually out there.” His remarks came during an event Thursday hosted by the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation. “We have a lot…
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of spectrum sitting out there that is semi-fallow because a lot of government operators do not want to identify their lack of usage of this spectrum,” he said. Warner is the author of the Spectrum Optimization Act (S-415), the Spectrum Relocation Improvement Act (S-522) and has advocated in the past for legislation to mandate national radio spectrum inventories in legislation such as S-455, the RADIOS Act. Warner also urged lawmakers to accelerate the process of delivering broadcaster spectrum from the coming voluntary incentive auctions. “The process and speed of relocation in terms of the broadcasters getting the auctions right, we are talking five to seven years. We ought to see if we can speed that up.” Warner also said he wished public safety operators would have given back some of their narrowband spectrum in exchange for D-block spectrum. “If we are going to give public safety this whole new spectrum revenue stream I think they need to have skin in the game,” he said. “I would love to have gotten a give back from public safety for some of their under-utilized spectrum.”