WASHINGTON—The Bush administration tomorrow plans to ask Congress for legislation that would postpone next year’s scheduled auction of third-generation mobile phone licenses for two years. However, Nancy Victory, head of the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, said the government intends to complete its analysis of the spectrum issue later this year.
Under current policy and law, the Federal Communications Commission is to hold the 3G auction by June 2002 and deposit proceeds into the U.S. Treasury by Sept. 30, 2002. The Bush bill would push the latter date back to Sept. 30, 2004.
Churches, schools and the Pentagon are vigorously opposed to handing over their radio frequencies to the mobile-phone industry, which says additional spectrum is needed for high-speed, Internet-enabled phones. The FCC this week is expected to tell the religious and educational communities their 2500 MHz spectrum is safe for now, but possibly could become available for 3G use in the future.
