Subject: [NEXTEL-1] Stealing spectrum?

From: [email-masked]
Date: Sat, 06 Sep 2003 14:30:25 -0400

Stealing Spectrum

A Sununu amendment to a
Commerce bill sticks it to taxpayers.

By Al Cors, Jr.

September 4, 2003

Earlier this summer, the U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and
Transportation approved passage of the Commercial Spectrum Enhancement Act.
The bill, originally authored in the House of Representatives by Fred Upton
(R., Mich.), would use the proceeds from auctions of government-owned
airwaves to create a special fund that would help federal agencies smoothly
relocate from spectrum as it is sold to commercial entities. While the
importance of this legislation may not be readily apparent, one has only to
look at the tremendous bipartisan support of 408 votes it received in the
House of Representatives to see the true magnitude of the issue.

Senate Commerce Committee Chairman John McCain introduced the Senate version
of this legislation. With McCain's reputation as a pork-fighter, one would
expect that the legislation before his committee would be free of any such
pork provisions. And it was, until it was amended.
Unfortunately, there is now a huge pork prize included in the bill just to
benefit a single company. Thanks to a successful amendment by Sen. John
Sununu (R., N.H.), the U.S. would simply give Northpoint Technology the
rights to spectrum with an estimated worth of $100 million. This "no cost
gift" (at the expense of taxpayers) occurs because of intensive lobbying by
the politically connected Northpoint. If the Sununu Northpoint amendment
remains in the bill, taxpayers will be fleeced once again.

The sale of spectrum is an important business for the communications sector
of our economy, and our taxpayer dollars are clearly at stake. Spectrum
auctions to date have produced $1.2 billion for the U.S. Treasury. Now that
tough economic times are forcing the federal budget into record deficits,
the last action Congress should contemplate is giving millions of taxpayer
dollars to Northpoint, courtesy of the Sununu amendment.

This blatant taxpayer rip-off follows the Federal Communications Commission
(FCC) action to set aside part of the Direct Broadcast Satellite (DBS)
spectrum used by satellite television companies for a "terrestrial"
(ground-based) wireless cable system, like the one Northpoint plans to
build. While many thoughtful policymakers questioned the decision on the
grounds that sharing of the DBS spectrum by terrestrial wireless systems
could interfere with satellite TV transmissions, the FCC set-aside was
granted.

The commission made it clear, however, that terrestrial wireless cable
providers should bid for the spectrum in open auctions like everyone else.
Undiscouraged, Northpoint went directly from the FCC to Congress and asked
its friends to hand over the spectrum as a gift. To the chagrin of
taxpayers, this boondoggle (to date) is succeeding.

Northpoint has a long history of political involvement, as does its national
network of politically connected franchisees. It has been reported that some
of the franchisees are even related to members of Congress. Those
connections have, so far, greased the way for the Northpoint giveaway
gambit. But getting a massive handout attached to a bill in committee is one
thing, while getting it passed is quite another. When the bill reaches the
Senate floor, it's clear that a number of senators will be working to strike
the Sununu gift language. National Taxpayers Union, and many other concerned
groups, will be supporting that effort.

If the Senate effort fails to pull the Northpoint pork off the bill, it
seems certain that the Commercial Spectrum Enhancement Act will be dead.
This death will occur despite the importance of the bill. Ken Johnson, a
House Commerce Committee spokesman, has already called the Sununu Northpoint
amendment "a deal breaker." Members of the Senate should act now to save
this important legislation, before a single company trying to add to its
profits at taxpayers' expense torpedoes it.

- Al Cors, Jr. is vice president of government affairs for the National
Taxpayers Union. NTU has actively championed fair spectrum auctions for more
than a decade. For further information, visit www.ntu.org, or write to 108
N. Alfred St., Alexandria, Va. 22314.

http://www.nationalreview.com/script/printpage.asp?ref=/nrof_comment/comment-cors090403.asp

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