WASHINGTON-Lawmakers this week are expected to tackle legislation critical to successful implementation of the Bush third-generation spectrum plan, a last-ditch effort for this year that comes as industry, military and administration officials show evidence of improved cooperation in balancing economic and security requirements for the crowded airwaves.
“I’m very bullish on getting it through,” said Paul Nash, director of Senate federal relations at Verizon Wireless.
Nash said negotiators are close on the bill’s language, and congressional members may vote on the measure under a streamlined parliamentary procedure known as unanimous consent. However, John Walls, a spokesman at CTIA, said it is also possible the relocation bill could be packaged with other wireless bills and then attached to appropriations legislation.
Sen. Ted Stevens (R-Alaska), who will succeed Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) as chairman of the Commerce Committee, may figure large in the final analysis. Walls said Stevens wants to designate a portion of the 3G auction-otherwise dedicated for Department of Defense communications-for wireless emergency alert capability. Meantime Sen. John Sununu (R-N.H.), according to sources, appears to be attempting to link the relocation fund and wireless enhanced 911 bills.
Various wireless lobbyists echoed Nash, voicing guarded optimism that a bipartisan bill that has eluded industry could finally be within reach. Overseas wireless carriers moving ahead with 3G rollouts have substantially more spectrum to work with than do U.S. mobile-phone operators.
The legislation, passed last year by the House but still lingering in the Senate, would earmark 3G auction proceeds to relocate Department of Defense radio systems to new frequencies in exchange for the Pentagon’s agreement to free 1700 MHz spectrum for commercial 3G wireless services.
In 2002, the Bush administration designated 90 megahertz (1710-1755 MHz and 2110-2155 MHz) for 3G services. After the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, the Bush administration was forced to scale back a more ambitious 3G spectrum plan championed by the Clinton administration. The Federal Communications Commission has written rules for the new 3G spectrum.
As such, congressional action on the relocation bill is the last great hurdle. With most of the bill’s major sticking points largely resolved, the biggest challenge to passage may be the clock. The lame-duck session of Congress runs Tuesday through the end of the week, a compressed time frame in which high-priority legislation (appropriations and perhaps intelligence reform) as well as other bills will compete for lawmakers’ attention.
Clyde Ensslin, a spokesman for the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, said the relocation bill remains a top legislative priority for the agency. Acknowledging prospects remain unclear for the bill’s approval, Ensslin stated, “We are doing what we can to communicate our interests as we have.”
Getting a relocation fund established sooner rather than later is a more pressing matter for carriers like T-Mobile USA Inc. and Nextel Communications Inc. than for spectrum-strong carriers such as Cingular Wireless L.L.C., which recently closed on its $41 billion purchase of AT&T Wireless Services Inc., and Verizon Wireless, which recently acquired most of NextWave Telecom Inc.’s wireless licenses for $3 billion.
Passage of the 3G relocation bill-whether next week or next year-will be welcomed by industry, yet anticlimactic.
A potentially bigger development has been the culture change that has evolved in recent years as a result of fighting between the mobile-phone industry and DoD over spectrum and the military transformation that 9/11 accelerated.
The Pentagon, administration and industry are cooperating on spectrum management like no time before. All three have rallied behind the relocation fund bill.
“Alongside the administration and the wireless industry, DoD remains optimistic that the continued need to pass spectrum relocation trust fund legislation will lead to passage of HR-1320 this year,” said Badri Younes, director of spectrum management at DoD. “Expedient passage of an unencumbered bill remains a best-case scenario for all stakeholders. DoD remains steadfast in its support for this bill because of the importance of this spectrum to both critical military users and the national economy. A spectrum relocation trust fund would provide needed certainty for potential bidders as well as incumbent military users who would relocate from 1710-1755 MHz to make way for advanced wireless services. Auction winners as well as warfighters who rely on systems in these bands would be the ultimate beneficiaries. HR-1320 would streamline the relocation process and provide the warfighter with a guaranteed funding mechanism by assuring payment of relocation costs without further appropriation.”
In past years, following spectrum encroachments since the early 1990s, DoD has aggressively guarded its frequencies and was openly hostile toward industry. Much has changed, however.
“They [DoD] are much more open-minded than they were three or four years ago,” said James Lewis, senior fellow and director of technology policy at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
Lewis was the project director of a major spectrum management report issued by CSIS in 2003. That report documented growing military spectrum needs in the new era of network-centric warfare where information superiority is key. More recently, the Pentagon is said to have unofficially launched the 2005 Quadrennial Defense Review. The review, like the 2001 QDR, is expected to examine military spectrum needs in coming years. Meantime, DoD continues to be without a permanent assistant secretary of Networks and Information Integration, which oversees spectrum policy.
Last week, FCC Chairman Michael Powell and NTIA head Michael Gallagher met on spectrum matters.
“We have met President Bush’s call for creating an innovation environment by implementing policies that support advanced wireless services, next-generation networks, ultra-wideband, and most recently, broadband over power lines,” said Gallagher.
