Subject: [NEXTEL-1] Congress Keeps Spectrum Reform In Focus

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Congress Keeps Spectrum Reform In Focus

By Mark Rockwell
December 2, 2002

Wireless Week
© 2002, Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All Rights Reserved.

In spite of the FCC's attempt to provide a vision for future ways to harness spectrum, Congress apparently is preparing its own vision of how the resource should be used.

There have been several indications in the last few weeks that Congress will take up spectrum allocation and other related issues in its session beginning in January. Sen. John McCain, R.-Ariz., chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee, issued a brief statement that listed spectrum next to the financial crisis in telecom, FCC re-authorization, broadband deployment and media consolidation as important issues the committee would address in the 108th Congress. McCain and spokespeople for the Commerce Committee didn't provide specifics about when or how those issues would be addressed by the committee, however.

There also have been rumblings from Capitol Hill that Sen. Conrad Burns, R-Mont.–another key telecom character on the Senate Commerce Committee–is keen on looking at "major spectrum reform" legislation, say Capitol Hill sources. A draft bill could incorporate measures aimed at new methods of selling spectrum and how the revenue received from those sales are incorporated into the federal budget, said a Senate aide familiar with spectrum issues. Additionally, there also could be some effort to realign the spectrum relationship between the FCC and National Telecommunications & Information Administration, he says. Hearings could begin soon after the beginning of the year.

The FCC, with its nascent Spectrum Policy Task Force Report fresh off the presses, is watching what Congress is interested in. "Burns is excited about spectrum reform," says FCC Commissioner Kevin Martin. "We're working with him." Martin adds that the FCC is "not concerned" about any spectrum reform coming from Congress, as the agency is working with both the House of Representatives and the Senate.

However, at least one piece of concrete legislation is coming from Congress that seems to take a broad brush approach to spectrum reform. A bill drafted in the U.S. Senate in mid-November that would make unlicensed spectrum another entry in the broadband access horse race alongside cable modems and DSL lines already has drawn some skepticism from wireless organizations.

The draft legislation, drawn up by Sen. George Allen, R-Va., and Sen. Barbara Boxer, D.-Calif., aims to allocate 255 MHz of contiguous spectrum below 6 GHz for unlicensed use for wireless broadband devices. The bill also makes provisions with the Department of Defense and NTIA to ensure interference protection for military spectrum.

Senators Allen and Boxer also sent out a letter to other members of Congress asking for support to pursue wireless as an alternative to DSL and cable modems. The two say the debate between cable companies and wireline telephone companies over those two technologies has reached a stalemate and unlicensed wireless provides a third alternative.

The bill and ensuing effort to get other lawmakers to back the use of more unlicensed spectrum has drawn the attention of some wireless communications groups. "We back the use of unlicensed spectrum, but not at the expense of licensed providers," says Steve Berry, senior vice president of government affairs at CTIA. Introducing more unlicensed spectrum service providers could offer a way to get to broadband applications, but those providers shouldn't be able to use spectrum that's already licensed to other companies, he says.

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