Should Congress approve the so-called Northpoint amendment to the...

at large,” said Randolph May, Progress & Freedom Foundation (PFF) Dir.- Communications Policy. The Senate Commerce Committee added the Northpoint amendment over the objections of Committee Chmn. McCain (R-Ariz.). House Commerce Committee Chmn. Tauzin (R-La.) said he would try to remove the amendment during the conference on the bill, which hasn’t yet been addressed by the full Senate. The amendment would give Northpoint spectrum in the 12.2-12.7 GHz band without going through an FCC auction. In a column for CNET News.com, May said: “Even though spectrum auctions may not always be appropriate… they are useful in moving in a free market direction. The prime reason: They are ways to place spectrum in the hands of those entities that value it most highly.” May said Northpoint was using a “furious lobbying campaign” to overturn the FCC’s decision to auction the spectrum. Part of the problem, May said, rests in Congress’ 1927 decision to bar private ownership of spectrum. “As long as government takes the position that it owns the spectrum and private parties use it only at its sufferance through limited licenses, spectrum allocation and assignment decisions will be subject to a certain degree of political maneuvering,” May said. Northpoint’s effort to obtain a “pioneer exemption” ignores the fact that Congress abolished that standard because of the difficulty of making licensing decisions on “bureaucratic judgments concerning innovativeness,” he said. Also, May said Northpoint shouldn’t be given spectrum that competitors have paid for. However, Northpoint responded that it was arguing for equal, not special, treatment. Antoinette Bush, Northpoint exec. vp, said DBS outlets didn’t have to go through auction.