Senate Commerce Eyeing Combining 5G, Broadband Bills, Thune Says

“We've got several bills that have been filed, all of which deal with various elements” of encouraging 5G and broadband development, Thune said. “We'll have a hearing at some point,” but Senate Commerce is still collecting feedback on those bills, including the Streamlining the Rapid Evolution and Modernization of Leading-Edge Infrastructure Necessary to Enhance (Streamline) Small Cell Deployment Act (S-3157). The bill, which Thune and Senate Communications ranking member Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii, filed in June, aims to ease barriers by implementing a “reasonable process and timeframe guidelines” for state and local consideration of small-cell applications (see 1806290063).

Thune acknowledged during the hearing that S-3157 is “a work in progress” despite “many months of hard work” that included “meetings with stakeholders from across the country.” Local and state governments' ongoing opposition to S-3157 remains a significant hurdle to advancing it beyond Senate Commerce (see 1807050029). Senate Commerce ranking member Bill Nelson, D-Fla., said he's among senators “receiving a lot of passionate feedback from local officials, public power companies and others about [S-3157]. I look forward to having a robust conversation about the bill at a future hearing, which must include participation by local government and other interested stakeholders.”

Telecom lobbyists believe S-3157 is likely to make it through Senate Commerce in some form despite localities' opposition, though its path forward becomes more tricky after that. Thune and Schatz have the clout to move it through the committee and may even be able to attach it to another Senate bill, but “I'm doubtful it will get a signing ceremony in the White House Rose Garden,” one lobbyist said. There's no House companion to S-3157, but House lawmakers are “watching what happens in the Senate” with the bill, another said.

Other bills repeatedly came up for discussion, with the Advancing Innovation and Reinvigorating Widespread Access to Viable Electromagnetic Spectrum Act (HR-4953/S-1682) by far getting the most attention. Filed in the Senate last year and in the House in February, it aims to identify spectrum for unlicensed use and free up mid-band spectrum for wireless industry purchase via a future FCC auction. HR-4953/S-1682 also would direct the FCC to allocate 10 percent of proceeds from future spectrum auctions toward funding wireless broadband access for unserved and underserved consumers (see 1708010069 and 1802070054).

Sens. Cory Gardner, R-Colo., and Maggie Hassan, D-N.H., who led filing of S-1682, touted the bill. "We want everybody to be a part of this [5G] win," Hassan said. "So this is really about how we partner together, you all doing what you do so well, and us all saying so let's make sure every American gets this technology sooner rather than later."

CTIA President Meredith Baker and Qualcomm Senior Vice President-Spectrum Strategy and Technology Dean Brenner backed S-1682. Baker praised the bill specifically for including the rural dividend and for establishing a “a much-needed schedule of future spectrum auctions.” House Communications Vice Chairman Leonard Lance, R-N.J., a lead sponsor of House companion HR-4953 also mentioned that bill during the subcommittee's FCC oversight hearing (see 1807250043).

Schatz and Senate Communications Chairman Roger Wicker, R-Miss., separately cited their Supplementing the Pipeline for Efficient Control of the Resources for Users Making New Opportunities for Wireless Act (S-3010), which would give federal agencies more flexibility in use of money from the Spectrum Relocation Fund to subsidize spectrum research and development. S-3010 and House companion HR-6017 also would allow agencies to get more funding than they otherwise could (see 1806060060). Baker backed the bill.

Senate Consumer Protection Subcommittee ranking member Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., and Senate Judiciary Antitrust Subcommittee ranking member Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., voiced skepticism about the pro-5G argument supporters have used in urging T-Mobile/Sprint OK. Blumenthal countered that T-Mobile CEO John Legere and former Sprint CEO Marcelo Claure said well before the deal was announced in April that the respective carriers were planning their own fifth-gen networks. “Doesn't each company presently have sufficient spectrum to launch 5G?” Blumenthal asked. Klobuchar asked why further consolidation of the U.S. wireless market is necessary “to make deployment of 5G economically feasible.”

Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, repeated his concerns about the Trump administration's 5G nationalization position. Two days earlier, Cruz and Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto, D-Nev., filed their Eliminate From Regulators Opportunities to Nationalize the Internet in Every Respect (E-Frontier) Act in a bid to formally bar the administration from building a national 5G network without authorization from Congress (see 1807230059). Cortez Masto and Cruz have returned to the issue several times since the January release of a leaked National Security Council draft memo that proposed nationalization because of concerns China could otherwise build a network. Charter Communications Senior Vice President-Wireless Technology Craig Cowden and other witnesses said they don't support nationalization. A government-run network would disincentivize private investments and there are “many other ways” to achieve the national security goals the NSC sought via private sector coordination, Cowden said.