Doyle Sees Private C-Band Auction 'Almost Unimaginable' Given Broadband Funding Needs
House Communications Subcommittee Chairman Mike Doyle, D-Pa., again (see 1905150061) criticized the C-Band Alliance's proposal for clearing spectrum in 3.7-4.2 GHz, saying during a Thursday House Commerce Committee hearing it could disrupt the opportunity for using proceeds from sales of the spectrum to pay for rural broadband deployment. Several tech and telecom policy topics came up during Thursday's hearing on the policy priorities of lawmakers who aren't its members. Rep. Ed Case, D-Hawaii, urged House Commerce to probe the tech sector's Communications Decency Act Section 230 liability shield and make further CDA changes.
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“We have an opportunity to pay” for rural broadband as part of a larger infrastructure package by using the proceeds of C-band spectrum sales, Doyle responded to connectivity concerns raised by Rep. Anthony Brindisi, D-N.Y. There's “going to be an auction" of the frequencies, "but it hasn't been determined how that auction is going to take place,” Doyle said. “It would be almost unimaginable that we would allow a private auction and four foreign satellite companies to keep the money. CBA's plan got scrutiny during a subcommittee spectrum policy hearing last week (see 1907160067).
“I'm hoping that members” of House Commerce “can come together” and reach bipartisan consensus on “a C-band plan that will allow us to start deploying that mid-range band, which is important for 5G” and can help pay for “broadband in rural America,” Doyle said. He and House Communications Vice Chair Doris Matsui, D-Calif., are working to marry elements of their separate draft C-band bills (see 1907150020).
C-band issues are also factoring into debate over revisions to the Advancing Innovation and Reinvigorating Widespread Access to Viable Electromagnetic Spectrum (Airwaves) Act. The previously-filed bill aims to identify spectrum for unlicensed use and free up mid-band spectrum for wireless industry purchase (see 1802070054). Sens. Cory Gardner, R-Colo., and Maggie Hassan, D-N.H., filed new version S-2223 this week and Doyle is working on differing text for the House (see 1907240033).
S-2223 is drawing criticism from some communications policy stakeholders because it, unlike the earlier Airwaves version, no longer requires a public auction of C-band spectrum. Gardner and Hassan “missed a golden opportunity to require a public auction of C-band that could generate $15 billion or more to address the rural broadband divide,” emailed New America’s Open Technology Institute Wireless Future Project Director Michael Calabrese. “Instead they propose giving the FCC a choice between auctioning C-band or auctioning the large swath of military radar spectrum below 3.5 GHz that the Pentagon will surely oppose.”
“We're very conscious” of the economic hurdles to deploying broadband in rural areas, responded House Commerce Chairman Frank Pallone, D-N.J., to Brindisi. House Rural Broadband Caucus co-Chairman Rob Wittman, R-Va., and Rep. Troy Balderson, R-Ohio, also urged Capitol Hill action on rural broadband. Pallone repeatedly touted Democrats' Leading Infrastructure for Tomorrow’s (Lift) America Act (HR-2741), which would allocate money for broadband projects and next-generation 911 technology implementation (see 1905210064).
“Today’s massive internet platforms that offer services cannot be allowed to knowingly facilitate law breaking in our states and localities by hiding behind CDA 230 immunity,” Case said. The issue factors into lawmakers' negotiations for a compromise on privacy legislation (see 1907180046). Case highlighted tech platforms' claim that Section 230 “prohibits states and counties from prohibiting and regulating” illegal short-term vacation rentals “and from penalizing platforms that knowingly sell them illegally.”
“There should be a way to compel short-term rental platforms to remove these illegal units from their inventory, and yet [Section 230] serves as a roadblock in that effort, Case said. He “strongly” disagrees that the statute “can be used as a legal shield against these types of common-sense regulations.” Congress has a “valuable template” for changes to Section 230 in the Stop Enabling Sex Traffickers-Allow States and Victims to Fight Online Sex Trafficking package enacted last year (see 1805020053), Case said: SESTA-FOSTA “could be replicated to cover other illegal online sales.”
Reps. Kevin Hern, R-Okla., and Elissa Slotkin, D-Mich., urged lawmakers to reach a consensus on anti-robocalls legislation, after House passage Wednesday (see 1907240063) of the Stopping Bad Robocalls Act (HR-3375). Senate Communications Subcommittee Chairman John Thune, R-S.D., last week (see 1907170076) said revisions make it more feasible for negotiators to reach a conference agreement that blends it with his Senate-passed Telephone Robocall Abuse Criminal Enforcement and Deterrence (Traced) Act (S-151).