Echoes of Senate Spectrum Bill in Eshoo-Waxman Draft

The draft bill by Committee Ranking Member Henry Waxman, D-Calif., and Communications Subcommittee Ranking Member Anna Eshoo, D-Calif., is 133 pages (http://xrl.us/DemSpectrum), twice the length of the GOP draft (http://xrl.us/GOPSpectrum). Besides reallocating the D-block, the Democrat draft authorizes voluntary incentive and other auctions. Its release comes amid a flurry of spectrum bills, including by Reps. Doris Matsui, D-Calif., Gene Green, D-Texas, and John Dingell, D-Mich. The Communications Subcommittee’s hearing Friday is at 9 a.m. in Room 2123, Rayburn House Office Building.

"There are important differences between our approach and the Republicans’, but I hope that we will be able to work together to develop a bipartisan consensus,” Waxman said Thursday. Eshoo said talks with the GOP will continue, and she’s optimistic there will be a bipartisan bill. “What needs to be in any final legislation is straightforward,” she said. “We need a nationwide public safety network with a strong governance structure that leverages the commercial sector, as well as provisions that drive cost-efficient devices. We also need flexible voluntary incentive auctions authority that can free up spectrum for wireless broadband for the foreseeable future.” Legislation should also tackle next-generation 911 and unlicensed spectrum, Eshoo added.

The Democratic draft bill provides $11 billion and a 10-year license to the D-block to a Public Safety Broadband Network Corporation that would govern the public safety network. The money would come from a newly created public safety trust fund. The corporation would include federal, state, local, tribal, public safety and private sector members. The corporation could apply to renew its license every 10 years. The draft prohibits the FCC from renewing public safety narrowband licenses and directs the commission to do a state-by-state inventory of narrowband spectrum.

The corporation could contract with the private sector to build and operate the network, under the bill. The draft allows the Corporation to enter sharing agreements with non-public safety entities to allow the private sector to obtain “secondary, preemptible” access to the network. The Corporation itself could not sell commercial service to the public. The draft bans state or local governments from denying most requests to modify wireless towers for the purpose of building the network.

The Eshoo/Waxman draft gives the FCC authority to conduct voluntary incentive auctions of both broadcast and mobile satellite service spectrum, and directs auction proceeds to the public safety trust fund. The FCC may only reclaim spectrum use rights of a TV broadcaster if it assigns the licensee “an identical amount of contiguous spectrum, in the same geographic market,” in a comparable range of frequencies, that allows the licensee to offer a “substantially similar” service. Relocation costs would be paid for through an incentive auction relocation fund. No less than 5 percent but not more than $2 billion from the public safety trust fund would be deposited into the incentive auction fund, under the draft. And the bill says the FCC can give the licensee giving up spectrum “an amount that the Commission considers appropriate, based on the value of the rights relinquished by such licensee.”

The draft directs NTIA to identify for reallocation 15 MHz between 1675 and 1710 MHz, except for geographic exclusion zones, and 25 MHz from 1755 to 1850 MHz. It directs the FCC to identify 15 MHz to pair with the 1675-1710 MHz spectrum. The draft requires the FCC to auction spectrum between 2155 MHz and 2180 MHz in 2014, and the other spectrum in 2018. The draft also requires the FCC to auction spectrum between 3550 MHz and 3650 MHz, except for geographic exclusion zones, no later than three years after enactment. Some of the proceeds would go to the spectrum relocation fund, and the rest would go to the public safety trust fund. The draft extends FCC auction authority until 2021, a provision commonly included in spectrum bills to offset costs.

The draft devotes $250 million for a grant program at NTIA to assist state, local and tribal public safety entities in planning their networks. The grants carry a matching requirement where the federal share may not exceed 80 percent of the eligible cost. The draft also gives $500 million from the trust fund over five years to the National Institute of Standards and Technology to research and develop standards, technology and applications for the public safety network. The bill provides $4 million from the fund over two years to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration for a report “that analyzes and determines detailed costs for specific Next Generation 911 service requirements and specifications.”

Leftover money in the trust fund would go to paying down the deficit. All money deposited into the public safety trust fund would be available through FY 2021. After that, the money would be deposited into the Treasury “for the sole purpose of deficit reduction.” After auctioning 84 MHz of the TV broadcast spectrum, the FCC could provide some of the proceeds for “ensuring that portions of the television broadcast spectrum remain available for unlicensed use on a nationwide basis and in each local market."

The draft directs the FCC to adopt technical rules to manage spectrum in bands adjacent to public safety broadband spectrum. The FCC also must make rules requiring commercial providers to offer roaming and priority access services if public safety equipment is compatible with the commercial network, the commercial provider is “reasonably compensated,” and it doesn’t hurt existing service on the commercial network. The draft asks the FCC to adopt technical rules about how the public safety network will operate at international borders of the U.S. And the FCC would have to make rules encouraging commercial availability of “Band Class 14” devices that would work on public safety spectrum. Every two years, the FCC would have to do a report on the public safety spectrum.

The Democratic draft orders a spectrum inventory from 225 MHz to 3.7 GHz, expandable to 10 GHz if the FCC and NTIA believe the benefits outweigh the costs. It also contains provisions to streamline the federal government spectrum relocation process. NTIA would have to develop a “federal strategic spectrum plan,” and the FCC and NTIA would have to jointly submit a quadrennial “national strategic spectrum plan.” Every six months until 2016, the FCC would have to submit a report on the availability of wireless equipment for the 700 MHz band. The Comptroller General would have to do a study on spectrum efficiency through receiver standards. Finally, Waxman and Eshoo incorporated Matsui’s bill on unlicensed spectrum in the 5 GHz band.

"NAB appreciates the efforts of Reps. Waxman and Eshoo in support of broadcast spectrum auctions that are truly voluntary,” NAB President Gordon Smith said. Smith also had praise for the GOP draft bill in a statement Wednesday. CTIA Vice President Jot Carpenter said the GOP version “is an important and positive first step to address America’s looming spectrum crisis while ensuring we remain the world’s leading wireless industry.” NCTA President Michael Powell praised the GOP bill. “We particularly appreciate the effort to ensure that spectrum legislation does not expand existing carriage obligations and appropriately covers costs that may be experienced by cable operators as a result of channel relocation,” he said.

TIA praised the Matsui bill on unlicensed spectrum. “In asking the expert federal agencies to study whether additional spectrum can be opened for use by unlicensed technology in the 5 GHz band, the bill would build on the extensive unlicensed ecosystem that already exists in a portion of the 5 GHz band, and creates an opportunity for all stakeholders to engage in a dialogue about the technical aspects of sharing additional spectrum with federal users,” it said.