Division over the 700 MHz D-block is the main barrier to bipartisan spectrum legislation in the House, lawmakers said at a Communications Subcommittee hearing Friday. The Commerce Committee’s top Democrats and top Republicans have signed onto separate draft bills. The Democrats want to reallocate the D-block to public safety and the Republicans seek to auction it to commercial providers. While both sides voiced optimism about reaching consensus, debt limit negotiations threaten to suck up a key component of the legislation: Voluntary incentive auctions. (See separate report in this issue.)
Congress will finish off Universal Service Fund reform, Rep. Lee Terry, R-Neb., said at a press conference Thursday kicking off rural telecom associations’ marketing push on rural broadband. Terry said he’s “extremely optimistic” there will be a deal by the end of August that’s supported by industry, the FCC and the House Commerce Committee. Also at the event, Sen. Mark Begich, D-Alaska, predicted that the Senate will get “very aggressive” on the issue.
A draft spectrum bill similar to S-911 is circulating in the House courtesy of Commerce Committee Democrats. By proposing reallocation of the 700 MHz D-block to public safety, the bill stands in opposition to a Republican draft bill (CD July 14 p2) released Wednesday. With a legislative hearing scheduled for Friday morning, Democrats have told staff to continue talks with Republicans.
House and Senate Democrats objected to draft spectrum legislation floated Wednesday by House Commerce Committee Republicans. The draft bill, which will be the subject of a House Communications Subcommittee hearing Friday, does not give the 700 MHz D-block to public safety, unlike the Senate’s bipartisan spectrum bill. Like S-911, the House draft would authorize the FCC to conduct voluntary incentive auctions, but it limits the FCC to a single auction of broadcaster spectrum. Rep. Doris Matsui, D-Calif., introduced a separate spectrum bill Friday related to unlicensed use.
The FCC should write a fallback plan in case some wireless carriers refuse to support mobile alert technology, Rep. Laura Richardson, D-Calif., said at a Friday hearing of the House Homeland Security Subcommittee on Emergency Preparedness, Response and Communications. Richardson is the subcommittee’s ranking member. But FCC and CTIA witnesses said market forces are pushing carriers to voluntarily support the Commercial Mobile Alert Service, also known as the Personal Localized Alerting Network (PLAN). The service, designed to send text-message alerts to people in disaster areas, is scheduled to rollout nationwide next April. Legislators also raised concerns about privacy and training issues related to mobile alerts.
Rep. Cliff Stearns, R-Fla., is moving ahead with legislation to update the Regulatory Flexibility Act (RFA) and require independent agencies, such as the FCC, to review past regulations, the House Commerce Oversight Subcommittee chairman said after a hearing Thursday. The FCC is one agency that’s not doing enough to reduce regulation, Stearns and other subcommittee Republicans said. FCC Commissioner Robert McDowell, testifying alongside commissioners from the FTC and other independent agencies, agreed that the FCC should be more deregulatory.
NTIA is “a month or two away” from issuing recommendations about the LightSquared network and how it can operate without interfering with GPS, NTIA Administrator Larry Strickling said Wednesday. At a House Communications Subcommittee hearing on government spectrum (see separate report in this issue), Strickling said NTIA is evaluating testing reports “to determine at what point LightSquared might be able to go into commercial operation [and] at what conditions.” The company can’t pursue its “original operational plan,” and NTIA is reviewing “the options for a different form of operation by LightSquared,” he said.
More resources for federal agencies could help smooth reallocation of government spectrum, NTIA Administrator Larry Strickling said at a hearing Wednesday afternoon on federal spectrum. While reallocation has been called a win-win, Strickling said not all federal agencies see “what the win is for them.” Subcommittee members of both parties said reassigning government spectrum for commercial use is one key in efforts to prevent a spectrum crunch.
NTIA is responding to a scathing GAO report from May, NTIA Administrator Larry Strickling said in written testimony for a hearing Wednesday afternoon. Strickling, the lone witness scheduled to testify at the House Communications Subcommittee hearing on federal spectrum, also urged Congress to complete spectrum legislation. More than one-fifth of a Democratic Commerce Committee memo dated Tuesday addresses the May GAO report (CD May 13 p3). The report claimed NTIA lacks focus, accountability and “an overall strategic vision.” The hearing is to start at 2 p.m. in Room 2123, Rayburn House Office Building.
Todd Bertoson will replace Brian Hendricks as Republican staff director for the Senate Commerce Committee, a committee spokeswoman said. Bertoson was deputy staff director. Hendricks, who handled telecom issues for Ranking Member Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas, is leaving for a job heading technology policy at Nokia Siemens Networks. Hutchison had said she wanted Hendricks to replace Meredith Baker on the FCC, but the move to Nokia Siemens takes him out of the running and gives a boost to Ajit Pai, the apparent pick (CD June 20 p1) of Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky.