Telecom Bill to Include White Space Provision

“If I have my way, we'll drop ’tele’ and just talk about ‘communications’ once we can get through this bill,” Stevens said. Panelists criticized FCC handling of spectrum auctions; a Govt. Accountability Office report criticized the FCC and NTIA for not taking its advice to work jointly on a national spectrum plan. Stevens backs the national system concept, he said. The agencies should collaborate, he said: “I'd hate to see NTIA to start competing with FCC on auctions.” The FCC could manage spectrum allocated for govt. use but dormant, he said.

Sen. Kerry (D-Mass.), a co-sponsor of Sen. Allen’s bill, hammered the FCC for “sitting on rulemaking” that would speed U.S. broadband deployment. “Despite the President’s promise of ubiquitous broadband by 2007, we're clearly now well into 2006 and short of that goal,” he said. The white spaces bill would be a key step toward introducing “real competitiveness” in the market, he said: “It’s important not to have false arguments put in the way of this.”

Stevens politely dismissed a proposal urging radical change in spectrum management from its current “command-and- control” regulation to a “propertization system,” developed by the Progress & Freedom Foundation. Lawrence White, N.Y.U. economics professor and PFF consultant, said the plan would turn spectrum management into a type of real estate market in which owners would have the right to sell, lease or buy spectrum as if it were property. Voicing interest in the idea, Stevens said he plans to have a hearing on it, but it’s “too much to ask us to be involved with” right now. “To get from where we are now and go nationally it’s equivalent to one type of ‘ism’ to another,” Stevens said.

The FCC and NTIA should have joint spectrum management authority, JayEtta Hecker, dir.-GAO Physical Infrastructure, said: “The need for attention to this matter is acute.” GAO wants a commission, created by the President or Congress, to study spectrum management reform. GAO’s report criticized the FCC for its slow, inefficient auction process -- a complaint echoed by others on the panel. The result is underutilization of spectrum, it said.

The FCC and NTIA defended their work, with FCC Acting Wireless Bureau Chief Catherine Seidel saying that since the FCC got auction authority, bidders have won 28,500-plus licenses and paid the govt. over $14.5 billion. NTIA Acting Dir. John Kneuer said the agency has had difficulty in the “current regulatory environment balancing its role of ensuring commercial wireless services have “adequate access to spectrum” while preserving spectrum for federal systems and public safety. NTIA is implementing a 2004 law on spectrum auctions, he said.

Wireless carriers and other commercial interests want to see more spectrum auctioned, the MSTV told the panel, but Congress should move “deliberately” in making such a change. Broadcasters fear use of white spaces could lead to interference -- an issue Intel Communications Technology Lab Dir. Kevin Kahn dismissed. Kahn said Intel’s analyses refute “misleading and incorrect claims made by TV licensees that unlicensed use will interfere with their operation.” But MSTV criticized the data, saying the problem is more complex: “Interference means no TV service,” said Hubbard TV Pres. Robert Hubbard, speaking on behalf of MSTV.

Unlicensed wireless devices could cause interference to DTV and set-top box operation, the CE industry warned. “As a technical matter, we will be operating in uncharted waters,” said the letter from 4 CE makers to Stevens and Co-Chmn. Inouye (D-Hawaii) Tues. Any bill on white spaces should require that operating in them not interfere with TV signals, the letter said.