WASHINGTON-Commerce Secretary-designate Donald Evans said he will stress spectrum management in the next administration and told Senate Commerce Committee members he realizes the international implications of third-generation mobile-phone development in the United States.
“We need to put a lot more emphasis on management of the spectrum. Not in the days ahead, but in the decades ahead,” said Evans, 54, a long-time Bush friend and Texas oil businessman who raised $100 million for the president-elect as his campaign manager.
Evans, responding to Sens. Conrad Burns (R-Mont.) and Sam Brownback (R-Kan.), indicated 3G was clearly on his political radar screen. Brownback is a co-chairman of the congressional wireless caucus and author of a bill last year that would lift restrictions on the amount of spectrum held by 3G wireless carriers.
“I understand Asia and Europe are in front of us on this particular issue,” said Evans, who appears to have enough Democratic support to be confirmed. At the same time, Evans could face tough questioning later as commerce secretary from Democratic lawmakers on combustible non-telecom matters, like census sampling and global warming.
Evans, speaking to a congressional panel chock full of senators from rural states, said 3G wireless technology might help to bridge the “digital divide” by bringing Internet services to rural areas that tend to see technological advances later than urban areas because of the high-cost involved.
The Senate Commerce Committee will not vote on the Evans nomination until members receive a completed FBI background check and an ethics report. Evans was questioned briefly about his association with banks that went bankrupt and later sued.
That Evans-as future head of a huge government agency with a diverse portfolio-would single out spectrum management and 3G as issue is significant. While he conceded his knowledge of 3G was limited to briefing papers and meetings with lawmakers days before last Thursday’s Senate confirmation hearing, the fact that key wireless issues are being brought to his attention so soon bodes well for the industry.
“It is very heartening that a secretary designate, with everything on his plate, knew about spectrum issues important to the wireless industry,” said Steven Berry, senior vice president for congressional affairs at the Cellular Telecommunications & Internet Association.
Historically, a big problem for industry during a change of administration is re-educating new policy makers and their staffs about pet issues.
Evans would command the Commerce Department, parent to the National Telecommunications and Information administration. NTIA advises the president on telecom policy and manages federal government spectrum.
An Oct. 13 Clinton executive memorandum directed NTIA and other federal agencies to study whether certain frequencies bands-earmarked for global 3G uses but occupied in the U.S. by military, broadband Internet, religious and educational licensees-can be shared or totally cleared for Internet-friendly mobile phones that carry voice, high-speed data and video content.
Last June, the World Radiocommunication Conference designated the 1710 MHz-1885 MHz, 2500 MHz-2690 MHz and 698 MHz-960 MHz bands for global 3G wireless services. The FCC last week proposed to earmark those three bands for 3G use. In addition, the commission said cellular, personal communications services and specialized mobile radio service frequencies are under consideration for 3G.
Recently completed studies conducted by NTIA and the FCC concluded sharing of spectrum between 3G mobile-phone operators and other will be a challenge, if not impossible.
Some critics claim the 3G spectrum dilemma confronting the nation is the result of no long-range national spectrum policy. Both the GOP-led Congress and the Clinton administration, which supported the sale of spectrum licenses worth billions of dollars as a means to help reduce the federal deficit during the 1990s, bear some of the blame.
“There needs to be a long-term strategic plan on how we manage it-not, `We’ve got spectrum so let’s auction it,’ ” Evans told Senate Commerce Committee members.
After the hearing, Brownback said Congress should consider all options-including legislation-if the Clinton 3G plan fails to provide the necessary spectrum for next-generation mobile-phone systems.
In addition to 3G and spectrum management issues, Evans, if confirmed, faces a host of tough challenges with major implications for the wireless industry and other high-tech sectors.
This October, the moratorium on e-commerce taxes ends. Wireless firms are trying to design business strategies and networks that leverage the Internet for mobile commerce.
Congress must decide whether to renew the moratorium-as Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) and others advocate-or let it lapse. The latter scenario is unlikely, though Congress and the incoming Bush administration will face mounting pressure from cities and states facing revenue losses to e-commerce.
Evans vowed to give attention to e-commerce taxation and privacy sooner rather than later. “We need to get our arms around it now,” he said.
Several Senate Commerce Committee members emphasized the need to strengthen enforcement of global trade agreements in light of a U.S. trade deficit that was more than $400 billion in 2000. This issue is particularly important for the wireless industry, which is poised to gain access to China as a result of the historic trade pact reached last year between the Clinton administration and Beijing. In recent years, U.S. wireless firms have been frustrated by China’s unpredictability in adhering to trade commitments.
Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), who temporarily ceded his chairmanship of the Commerce Committee to Sen. Ernest Hollings (D-S.C.) until Bush is sworn in as president on Jan. 20, pressed Evans to come up with a plan that removes politics from the selection process for trade missions.
The Clinton administration came under fire for allegedly giving seats on Commerce Department-led trade trips in exchange for Democratic campaign contributions.
Evans said he plans to explore new approaches for dealing with dual-use technology, another issue that dogged the Clinton White House as a result of claims that commercial satellite technology was transferred to China and Russia and converted to military use.
