Panelists at discussion Thurs. sponsored by Congressional Interne...

lunch held by Advisory Committee to Congressional Internet Caucus, also raised concerns about impact of pending spectrum policy challenges in U.S. Rep. Honda (D-Cal.), whose district includes Silicon Valley, said extent to which U.S. wireless sector appeared to lag behind its counterparts when it came to data services “should at least serve as a wake-up call.” He told lunch audience in U.S. Capitol that he just recently started receiving DSL service at home. “I live in Silicon Valley. If it’s not available readily in a neighborhood like mine, how much worse it is needed in other communities,” he said. Precursor Group analyst Rudy Baca raised particularly strong concerns about lack of available spectrum in U.S., citing auction “debacles” such as NextWave. On 700 MHz auction, which wireless industry is seeking to have postponed from June 19, Baca said investment community also would prefer delay. Citing current encumbrance of analog broadcasters that don’t have to move until DTV transition is completed, he said investors thought “how in the world do we value this spectrum?” Valuations are hard to make based on spectrum that may not become available until 2008, Baca said. “My clients say, ’sorry, guys, I can get 3% [interest] if I just go park my money in the bank.'” He encouraged Washington policymakers to provide “predictability” to spectrum policy, particularly because telecom sector now had gone from being engine of dot-com economy to “anchor.” In other policy areas, David Jeppsen of NTT DoCoMo said some of same policy considerations that had beset the wireline Internet would face wireless data applications as they were deployed more ubiquitously. He cited handsets that contained MP3 players and provided digital downloads of music. Jeppsen said that potentially provided different platform for same set of copyright issues as were at stake for the wireline Internet with Napster. But panelists generally were bullish on extent to which U.S. appeared to be closing the gap with its counterparts elsewhere in world on wireless Internet deployment, citing developments such as recent interoperability agreements among U.S. carriers for short- message service (SMS) messages. Vodafone’s Daniel Meredith said that, particularly in last year, U.S. had made strides to catch up with Europe. “We've come a long way,” he said of U.S. wireless industry. In response to question from moderator Gerry Waldron, attorney with Covington & Burling, he said that “in 2 years we will be almost on par -- if not on par -- with what the rest of the world is doing.”