3G LEGISLATION SAID TO ENSURE DoD SPECTRUM MIGRATION FUNDS
Wireless spectrum allocation legislation being developed in House would migrate Dept. of Defense (DoD) spectrum to private sector for 3G network deployment while ensuring that govt. gave adequate financial compensation to Pentagon for spectrum migration, aide to Rep. Pickering (R-Miss.) said. Pickering and House Telecom Subcommittee Chmn. Upton (R-Mich.) are reviewing draft 3G bill, but haven’t finalized language, Pickering’s Deputy Chief of Staff Mike Chappell said Fri. at Progress & Freedom Foundation panel in Washington.
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Core provisions of bill could: (1) Guarantee “first chunk of change” from auctioned DoD spectrum would go to trust fund slated for incumbent relocation efforts. (2) Devote revenue from auction toward Pentagon modernization initiatives. (3) Create spectrum allocation “safeguard process” for DoD in event that spectrum auction wasn’t as successful as expected. Measures would assure that Pengaton “will be held harmless in the [spectrum migration] process,” Chappell said.
CTIA would like to see “predictable rollout of spectrum” over 8 or 9 years, Senior Vp-Govt. Affairs Steven Berry said. He acknowledged that “some DoD satellite systems will take a long time to roll out,” possibly requiring spectrum migration from those systems “over a 10-to-15-year process.”
FCC Wireless Bureau Chief Thomas Sugrue expressed skepticism about govt. commitment to fixed timetable, saying predictions of minimum necessary rollout period “almost always are wrong,” citing example of delays in global harmonization of mobile satellite system spectrum: “I always get a little nervous when we talk about 8-to-10-year plans because I can see ourselves getting locked into things that may not prove fruitful.”
Cato Institute telecom analyst Adam Thierer questioned whether 3G rollout in U.S. would be profitable, referring to tremendous expense companies endured to secure 3G spectrum in Europe: “All we've seen so far is companies going into debt to buy spectrum… and people don’t want the services. What gives?” Berry and Sugrue said that scenario wouldn’t play out in U.S., where govt. and industry are pursuing market-based solution.
PFF Pres. Jeffrey Eisenach said Europe’s 3G spectrum rollout was expensive, “but at least they got the spectrum out,” unlike U.S. “Current thinking about how we're building out broadband infrastructure needs to be changed,” he said. 3G and digital TV, despite impediments to successful rollout, are “major growth drivers” in U.S. information technology economy, he said.
Although Pentagon has identified chunks of military spectrum it could migrate to commercial use, there are “no clear-cut answers” on how to accomplish that task, said Joseph Gattuso, NTIA acting dir.-govt. affairs. DoD this year spelled out in report potential areas where it could migrate spectrum, but developing strategy to execute plan would be more difficult, he said.