WASHINGTON-Let the lobbying begin.
Now that the Federal Communications Commission has
decided to think some more about its position on whether to auction private wireless spectrum, lobbyists are gearing up
efforts.
Private wireless representatives, who consistently have opposed the notion of competitive bidding as a
licensing regime for private wireless spectrum, now again can urge the FCC not to put out a notice of proposed rule
making tentatively favoring an auction licensing regime. Such an item was expected at last month’s FCC public
meeting.
The NPRM would be the FCC’s way of implementing the Balanced Budget Act of 1997. This law
expanded the FCC’s auction authority by saying the FCC would award licenses for mutually exclusive licenses by
auction.
However, licenses will not be awarded by auctions “for public safety radio services, including private
internal radio services used by state and local governments and non-government entities and including emergency road
services provided for not-for-profit organizations that are used to protect the safety of life, health, or property and are
not made commercially available to the public.”
The private wireless industry, including the two trade
associations which represent it-the Personal Communications Industry Association and the Industrial
Telecommunications Association-believe private wireless spectrum falls under the exception clause.
PCIA last
week sent a letter to the FCC’s Wireless Telecommunications Bureau restating its long-standing opposition to the
auctioning of spectrum for private internal use. “PCIA has expressed its opposition to auctions for this private
spectrum which is heavily utilized by internal radio users … Input from organizations such as PCIA is critical to
[WTB’s] understanding of the utilization of these channels by private users and the importance of this spectrum to
private safety,” said Mary McDermott, PCIA senior vice president and chief of staff for government relations, in
a letter dated March 1.
The letter was allowed on March 1 because the item had been pulled from the agenda of the
Feb. 25 public meeting, thus re-opening the opportunity to influence the decision. Contact with the FCC on items listed
on an agenda is prohibited during the seven-day sunshine period preceding a public meeting.
It is unclear at this
time when the FCC will propose rules to implement the Balanced Budget Act of 1997.
