MARKEY BACKS PUBLIC INTEREST TRUST FUND IN BROAD DRAFT BILL

Under Markey’s version, NTIA would have to submit spectrum relocation report to White House, Congress and FCC designating “bands of frequencies for reallocation for the provision of advanced commercial mobile services.” Report would include plan, developed in consultation with FCC to relocate or modify federally occupied frequencies in 1710- 1850 MHz band. Plan would create separate “spectrum commons” for unlicenced public use. To create that public segment, report would designate contiguous frequencies in: (1) 20 MHz band below 2 GHz. (2) Band between 3 and 500 MHz, which is above 2 GHz and below 6 GHz.

Spectrum allocation deadlines for advanced wireless services such as 3G would be set, targeting total of 30-45 MHz of paired spectrum by end of 2005 and additional 50 MHz by end of 2008. Bill would require FCC to “ensure that any rules necessary to effectuate the timely transition to [DTV] are promulgated and completed” before auction of upper and lower 700 MHz bands. Bill clarifies that “any rules necessary” must include: (1) Must-carry of free, over-air broadcast TV stations. (2) Minimum level of DTV network programming and broadcast requirements. (3) Mandate that all TV receivers “have the capability of displaying [DTV] signals by certain dates.”

Preservation of “competition-based spectrum policy” would be required by reinstating spectrum ceilings for wireless carriers. Commission voted in Nov. to repeal wireless spectrum cap completely Jan. 1, 2003, and raise it to 55 MHz in all markets in interim. Markey draft would order FCC to reestablish, at same level of competition present as of Oct. 1, 2001, “the amount of spectrum that a licensee may accumulate or utilize in individual markets.” He also would prevent FCC from reallocating frequencies in 2500-2690 MHz band “from instructional [TV] fixed service to any other service.”

Advocates for public interest telecom trust fund are targeting auctions that haven’t been scheduled yet. Former NBC News and PBS Pres. Lawrence Grossman, co-founder of Digital Promise, said in Fri. discussion that future auctions could generate $20 billion for trust fund, which would translate to $1 billion per year for grants and contracts for educational initiatives related to digital technologies. Trust fund concept has won support from high-tech sector, including Warburg Pincus, eBay, George Lucas. House and Senate leaders have asked National Science Board to study proposal and report to Congress in early June. Hearings on proposal are expected in both houses by end of current session, Grossman said. “Things are moving at an enormously fast rate, although we have a long, long way to go,” he said. Proposed DOIT fund would target proposed auctions not yet scored by Congressional Budget Office, including 3G auction.

Dodd’s legislation apparently is more oriented toward educational initiatives that would be financed by trust fund and less toward spectrum policy aspects of Markey bill. Senate bill, expected to be introduced after Markey legislation is dropped, is drawing early interest from Senate Commerce Committee Chmn. Hollings (D-S.C.) and ranking Republican McCain (R-Ariz.), we were told. Other senators expected to lend support include Sens. Jeffords (I-Vt.), Durbin (D-Ill.) and Cochran (R-Miss.).

Panelists repeatedly emphasized need for that type of funding for educational and cultural programs that were underrepresented and underfunded on Internet and in new digital media. Librarian of Congress James Billington outlined efforts of Library of Congress to put educational and historical content on Internet, including early film footage from Thomas Edison. Geared toward students and curious adults, program “brings a great deal of memory into what is essentially a memory-less medium,” he said. “A combination of new technology and old materials stimulates immediately a kind of critical historical thinking.” Material that is part of online program “is not competitive with reading.” Instead it covers material such as music, maps and other material. “Basically the Internet has enormous unrealized potential that haven’t hardly been tapped yet,” he said. “We are getting things that are not generally accessible to people with a high multi-medial component. It is not entertainment.” More than 8 million items will be available by end of this year as part of Library of Congress’s online project. “It is an attempt to get the American memory back into this highly present-minded thing,” he said. Such projects “humanizes the study of humanities and the social sciences,” he said.

Trust fund could be used to finance model projects and education experiments about how technology can best be used for e-learning initiatives, said Thomas Kalil, special assistant to chancellor for science and technology at U. of Cal., Berkeley. “The question we have to ask ourselves is what are the uses of new technology that will go beyond putting lecture notes on the Web,” he said. Kalil, who was deputy asst. to President Clinton for technology & economic policy, said that when dilemma that besets educators is how to harness the same level of attention that commercial and entertainment uses of Internet have garnered. He used example of online role-playing games that have large audiences of kids. “Could virtual worlds be used to teach children and young adults something more valuable than how to kill monsters and take their treasure?” he asked.