Spectrum Package Ready for Vote in House and Senate

The proposed legislation reallocates the 700 MHz D-block to public safety, which Genachowski initially opposed. The legislation establishes a Public Safety Trust Fund of up to $7 billion to pay for the launch of a national public safety network, offset by auction proceeds, and provides $300 million for research and development. Public safety would not be required to return its original narrow-band spectrum in return for the D-block. The bill also creates a First Responder Network Authority, under NTIA, to develop the network and allows the development of state systems following the same protocols as the national network.

In another contested area, AT&T and Verizon Wireless got a partial victory. While the FCC could still restrict some carriers from participating in the incentive auctions, the agency could do so only through a separate rulemaking and not as a part of special auction rules. The legislation also clears the way for additional unlicensed use of guard band spectrum and the 5.4 GHz band. It would streamline the process for deploying wireless towers and other facilities, a wireless carrier priority.

The legislation would create a big job for the FCC in managing what’s expected to be the most complicated series of auctions in the history of the agency.

Under the most optimistic scenario, the spectrum won’t be available for at least four years, and five to six years could be more realistic, a top wireless industry official told us Thursday. “A lot of things have to happen,” the official said. “They have to put rules in place for how the broadcasters are going to volunteer this spectrum. Then, once the spectrum is volunteered, they're going to have to come up with a rebanding, a repacking proposal, so that they can get a block of usable spectrum. Then they're going to have to do the whole auction rule thing, the bandplan, and then they're going to have to actually clear the damned spectrum. You know how this works, these things take time.”

The spectrum provisions were mentioned repeatedly during a hearing Thursday of the House Communications Subcommittee, featuring Genachowski. Subcommittee Chairman Greg Walden, R-Ore., said many members had “droopy eyelids” as a result of Wednesday night’s negotiations. “Some of us were up pretty late last night negotiating the final spectrum piece in the big piece,” he said.

"You're going to be overseeing one of the most complex, innovative spectrum auctions ever,” said Commerce Committee Ranking Member Henry Waxman, D-Calif. Waxman asked what the FCC needed to put together a successful incentive auction. The FCC needs more than lawyers, Genachowski said, acknowledging that the agency might have to make additional hires. “We need very strong economists,” he said. “We need very strong engineers. We need very strong business analysts. We need to understand the landscape in a very sophisticated way."

House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, told reporters the agreement on the payroll tax bill is a “fair agreement and one that I support.” Senate Democrats held a press conference Thursday afternoon to discuss the public safety provisions in the legislation. “There is truly nothing more important than safety,” said Commerce Committee Chairman Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va. “For those courageous and selfless first responders that risk their lives to save others every single day, this is the least we can do."

Rep. Anna Eshoo, D-Calif., and Darrell Issa, R-Calif., are generally pleased with the unlicensed language in the compromise legislation, they said during a briefing Thursday. Calling the deal “a compromise,” the representatives said they will continue to make the case for unlicensed spectrum. The language would ensure that the FCC has the flexibility to promote unlicensed use in the TV band, Eshoo said. Exploring the use of unlicensed spectrum, especially in the TV band, is vital given its ability to penetrate buildings, improve rural coverage and carry more data traffic than traditional Wi-Fi, Issa and Eshoo said. They urged a balanced spectrum policy that recognizes both licensed and unlicensed spectrum in the TV band.

TV white spaces can be easily adapted to provide shared access to other bands that the government is considering opening up, said Peter Stanforth, chief technology officer and co-founder of Spectrum Bridge, at the briefing. Shared access with existing incumbents is “prerequisite,” he said, noting access could be on a priority basis. Unlicensed spectrum addresses the needs of local government and rural communities and improves major resource management, he said, citing unlicensed spectrum use in inventory management, machine automation, public safety cameras and community Internet service for unserved areas.

Going forward, challenges for companies like Gorge Networks, an Oregon service provider, include higher bandwidth demand in extremely rural areas, increased bandwidth consumption from streaming, and frequency saturation, said the company’s president Dan Bubb. Unlicensed spectrum means lower cost of offering access, higher service availability and more bandwidth, he said, citing the reduction in towers and frequency overlay, he said.

AT&T Senior Executive Vice President Jim Cicconi was pleased that the legislative language would make it more difficult for the FCC to put rules in place to keep his company from bidding in all or part of the incentive auctions. “In our industry, there has been much focus in recent weeks on whether the FCC should or should not be able to exclude qualified wireless carriers from bidding in these spectrum auctions,” he said. “The final legislation speaks clearly on this point: the FCC may not do so as part of any auction proceeding. Instead, it could only make such a decision through a separate public rulemaking with general industry applicability, and not through the backdoor of special auction rules. This provides procedural safeguards, and also an opportunity for a court challenge."

"Now that the conferees … have put this package together, it’s up to the full House and Senate to get it passed,” said Jot Carpenter, CTIA vice president-government affairs. “I'm not going to suggest that spectrum reform alone will cure low [Congressional] approval ratings , but a package that encourages job creation, facilitates domestic investment, and supports innovation sure can’t hurt."

"This additional spectrum will help CTIA’s members meet Americans’ voracious appetite for mobile Internet anywhere and anytime,” said CTIA President Steve Largent. “While current usage is significant with more than 340 billion MB of wireless data used in the first half of 2011, mobile data usage is expected to grow by a factor of 16 over the next five years. The spectrum made available by this legislation is key to meeting that demand, as well as to enabling the industry to support advances in areas like mHealth and smart energy."

NAB was pleased that the spectrum provisions include a “critically important amendment” guaranteeing continued viewer access to TV signals along the Canadian and Mexican borders. “Tens of millions of Americans rely every day on local TV broadcasters for news, entertainment, sports and life-saving weather warnings,” NAB said. “We look forward to working with Congress and the FCC to implement an incentive auction program that does not jeopardize that service."

"Allowing the FCC to make additional spectrum available for mobile broadband through voluntary incentive auctions will ensure the innovation we have seen in mobile technology and devices over the past decade will continue,” the Information Technology Industry Council said. “At a time when our nation’s leaders are looking for ideas to create jobs in the near, medium, and long-term, spectrum legislation provides one of the few options that will accomplish that while also bringing in billions of dollars to the Treasury. The tech industry has supported incentive auction legislation since Congress began working on the issue, and fully appreciates the bi-partisan effort it took to reach this agreement.”,