WASHINGTON-The Pentagon, already at war in the Middle East and the Balkans, now faces a major confrontation at home over several bills that would benefit the Department of Defense at the expense of the wireless industry.
DOD is the common denominator in all the legislation and in the middle of it all is the Clinton administration.
The White House is at once fighting and siding with the Pentagon. The administration decries a provision in the Senate DOD authorization bill giving Pentagon spectrum top priority over all other government and non-government users that share frequency bands with the military. The Pentagon claims the provision is not its doing.
Sen. John Warner (R-Va.), chairman of the Armed Services Committee, watered down the DOD spectrum measure after widespread industry complaints. But industry believes Warner did not go far enough.
On the other hand, the White House is firmly behind a Senate DOD appropriations bill requiring the auction of 36 megahertz (from TV channels 60-69) a year-and-a-half ahead of schedule. While DOD-related spectrum issues only recently jumped on the political radar screen, they are not new to Capitol Hill.
The latest controversy centers on a House DOD authorization bill that bans the Pentagon from purchasing or leasing land- or space-based wireless communications after Sept. 30, 2000, unless it can be shown through independent testing that such services will not “cause interference to, or disrupt the use of, collocated commercial or military Global Positioning System receivers used by the Department of Defense” and are “safe for use with receivers in all other respects.”
Industry lobbyists complained to lawmakers that the GPS amendment is overly broad and draconian. They said that it would hurt DOD and industry alike by imposing regulatory hurdles that might scare off manufacturers and commercial wireless carriers, and thereby deny the military of communications services it requires.
The wireless industry, particularly Globalstar L.P. and Iridium L.L.C., are furious about the provision because it could throw a wrench into capital-intensive satellite operations. It also would prevent DOD from leasing cellular, paging and dispatch communications until it could be determined that wireless devices do not interfere with GPS-a potentially long and arduous process.
Industry has suggested that a serious GPS interference problem does not exist.
The GPS provision would appear to have strong backing from DOD and the GPS Industry Council.
Indeed, the GPS group previously complained to the Federal Communications Commission about potential interference from public safety and global mobile personal communications satellite service to GPS. Concerns also have been expressed about public-safety operations at 794-806 MHz interfering with GLONASS, the Russian global orbiting navigation satellite system.
The U.S. armed services depend on GPS-operated in the 1559-1610 MHz band and maintained by DOD-for aviation navigation and other purposes. In recent years, GPS has been used for more commercial applications.
Despite DOD’s claim it is not behind the spectrum provisions in the bills, some skeptics say the Pentagon might be trying to capitalize on the fact that the United States is fighting wars on two fronts.
Spectrum initiatives in DOD bills, they say, effectively enable the Pentagon to bypass the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, the FCC and other regulators.
DOD in recent years has been highly critical of U.S. spectrum policy, especially the 1993 bill that created auctions and transferred 235 megahertz of government spectrum to the private sector.
NTIA manages federal government spectrum and advises the president on telecom policy.
The DOD spectrum provisions have the potential to significantly alter U.S. spectrum policy.
“What we do have in House and Senate bills is a manifestation of disputes between federal and executives branches,” said Steven Berry, senior vice president of congressional affairs at the Cellular Telecommunications Industry Association.
Berry called the accelerated auction provision in the bill, penned by Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Ted Stevens (R-Alaska), “a bad deal for American taxpayers.”
The administration expects to raise $2.4 billion from selling 36 megahertz this year. But the move could backfire, though, if the market sees the auction as merely adding to an existing spectrum glut. As a result, the government might not get top dollar for licenses and wireless firms-especially start-ups-could see capital flee at the sight of more spectrum licenses.
Last October, House Commerce Committee Chairman Thomas Bliley (R-Va.) successfully urged then-Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) not to repeal a 1997 law that would not allow the 36 megahertz to be sold before 2001.
In addition to the impact a 36-megahertz auction this year might have on wireless firms and taxpayers, Bliley said such an auction also could hinder the transition to digital television.
