Pai Responds to Kennedy, Montana Hill Lawmakers' C-Band Concerns
FCC Chairman Ajit Pai responded to concerns raised by Senate Appropriations Financial Services Subcommittee Chairman John Kennedy of Louisiana and other Hill Republicans about a potential private auction of spectrum on the 3.7-4.2 GHz C band. The response came in…
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letters sent before two recent congressional hearings on the issue (see 1910290037). Pai's expected to propose a private auction plan for a vote at the commissioners' Dec. 12 meeting (see 1910100052). Kennedy has been particularly vocal on the issue and spoke with President Donald Trump about it last week (see 1911010052). Kennedy has been working to retain Senate Appropriations Committee-backed pro-public auction language (see 1909190079) in the chamber's version of the FY 2020 FCC-FTC budget bill (S-2524) despite opposition from Senate Commerce Committee GOP leaders. The FCC will need to “balance a variety of interests” in its final decision on the C band, Pai wrote Kennedy in an Oct. 15 letter released Monday. “I am optimistic that the Commission will be able to adopt” a C-band “in the near future.” Pai wrote Kennedy in response to the senator’s July letter to Trump about his C-band concerns (see 1907190051). Pai outlined four goals for an eventual auction, which he repeated during the panel days later (see 1910170038), including that a final plan should “quickly” make a “significant” amount of spectrum available for 5G. It should also “generate revenue for the federal government” and must ensure current C-band incumbents' services, including cable and broadcast programming, “will continue to be delivered” to consumers, Pai said. He made the same points in letters, released Friday, responding to concerns (see 1907290061) from Sen. Steve Daines and Rep. Greg Gianforte, both R-Mont. Gianforte is a co-sponsor of the Clearing Broad Airwaves for New Deployment (C-Band) Act (HR-4855), which would require a public FCC auction of 200-300 MHz of “contiguous” spectrum in the swath by Sept. 30, 2022 (see 1910240046).