WASHINGTON-A key Senate lawmaker who pushed for technology neutrality in efforts to build wireless infrastructure in Iraq, today said he is satisfied with the process that awarded three mobile-phone licenses, which will all use European GSM technology, and does not plan to pursue congressional oversight to examine why American-developed CDMA technology will be locked out of the war-torn country for now.
“I think the bidding was open, transparent and fair,” said Sen. Conrad Burns (R-Mont.), chairman of the Senate communications subcommittee, at a press briefing on the return of a congressional delegation to Iraq and Afghanistan.
GSM technology is widely used in countries surrounding Iraq and throughout the region.
Burns said he would have like to have seen a North American technology used in Iraqi mobile-phone systems and held out the possibility that could still happen. One of the top applicants in the mobile-phone license competition planned to deploy CDMA technology.
Burns’ support for the Iraqi wireless licensing decision, following speeches in recent weeks warning against favoring one technology over another, comes as the Bush administration embarks on a public-relations effort to emphasize the progress made in Iraqi reconstruction.
