MARKEY BILL AIMS TO CREATE ‘SPECTRUM COMMONS’
House Telecom Subcommittee ranking Democrat Markey (Mass.) reintroduced legislation Thurs. to create a “spectrum commons” for the public through unlicensed spectrum. The spectrum allocations are designed to provide more room for Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and other wireless protocols, he said. Markey said opening such spectrum would create more spectrum efficiency as well as spur innovation. “The ’spectrum commons’ will also help to propel economic growth and innovations by opening up the airwaves to new marketplace entry by individuals and entities unaffiliated with established network providers, such as incumbent cable, telephone or wireless carriers,” Markey told the House.
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The bill, which is similar to legislation he offered last year (HR-4641), has proposed: (1) Creation of unlicensed swaths of spectrum to be used by the public. (2) Creation of a “spectrum trust fund” to relocate govt. spectrum users when they are displaced by commercial users, as well as a public interest telecom fund for projects related to education and broadband deployment. (3) Requirement that the FCC take action on DTV transition issues including must-carry, minimum programming and DTV receiver benchmark issues before it could schedule more auctions. The FCC and NTIA also would have to secure additional advanced wireless spectrum for 3G before scheduling auctions. Last year’s version of the bill got only 2 co-sponsors and didn’t have a hearing in the House Commerce Committee. However, it was introduced late in the session.
The bill would establish 20 MHz of contiguous frequencies below the 2 GHz band and between 3 and 500 MHz between the 2 GHz and 6 GHz bands for a spectrum commons, which would remain open and unlicensed. However, it was unclear how the bill would affect others on unlicensed spectrum allocation. In a March 14 letter to Sen. Allen (R- Va.), FCC Chmn. Powell said he would begin a rulemaking this spring to allocate 255 MHz of spectrum in the 5 GHz band for Wi-Fi. Allen’s office said such a rulemaking probably would eliminate the need for legislation (S-159) by Allen and Sen. Boxer (D-Cal.) that would open frequencies in that bandwidth.
The Markey bill would create a $5 billion fund for reallocating govt. spectrum. Earlier last week, House Telecom Subcommittee Chmn. Upton (R-Mich.) introduced HR-1320 that would create a reallocation trust fund.
The “Digital Dividends Trust Fund” portion of the bill would create grants for: (1) Training for teachers and library personnel eligible for E-rate funding. (2) R&D for education software. (3) Digitizing educational material from libraries, archives and museums. (4) Worker training in “new economy” skills. (5) Expansion of advanced telecom services in areas available to the general public. (6) Conversion of public radio and TV broadcasting stations to digital technology.