Subject: [NEXTEL-1] Military, CTIA Support Spectrum Bill

From: Marcel <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 26 Mar 2003 14:59:22 -0500

Military, CTIA Support Spectrum Bill
By Roy Mark
March 25, 2003

Legislation designed to create a spectrum relocation fund for federal
agencies received the endorsement of the military, the administration
and the Cellular Telecommunications and Internet Association (CTIA)
Tuesday afternoon at a meeting of the House Energy and Commerce
Subcommittee on Telecommunications and the Internet.

Sponsored by Rep. Fred Upton (R.-Mich.), the subcommittee
chairman, H.R. 1320 seeks to help federal agency relocate to
comparable wavelengths to make way for private wireless carriers'
advanced wireless service offerings to consumers. The government
already has identified the 1710-1755 MHz band, mostly currently
encumbered by the military, for relocation from the to the private
sector.

The military spectrum is considered so valuable to the private
wireless industry that it has been dubbed "beachfront property" for
its suitability for commercial, mobile advanced wireless services such
as 3G.

Under current law, a commercial telecom has to win a spectrum
license at a Federal Communications Commission (FCC) auction and
then negotiate with an affected federal agency regarding the price
and timeline for the agency to move its spectrum operations to
another band.

Upton's bill would require the Office of Management and Budget
(OMB) and the National Telecommunications and Information
Administration (NTIA), an agency of the U.S. Department of
Commerce and the administration's principal voice on spectrum, to
provide a cost estimate and timeframe for relocation to the FCC prior
to auction. The FCC then will hold its auction, but cannot close until
the bidding equals at least 110 percent of the estimated relocation
cost.

Once the auction is closed, the winning bidder's money will be placed in a newly created
spectrum relocation trust fund and the relocating agency will draw down directly from
that trust fund until the relocation is complete and fully paid for.

"This bipartisan bill represents a 'win-win-win,'" said Upton. "This is good news for the
private sector, which craves certainty in the process, and the consumer who craves the
benefits which new services enabled by additional spectrum will afford them. This is good
news for government agencies who know that they will be made whole when they
relocate to comparable spectrum, and good news for taxpayers who will not have to pay
a dime to relocate government agencies and will know that there is tight fiscal oversight
in this regard."

Nancy Victory, the NTIA's assistant for communications and information, told the
subcommittee Tuesday her agency "enthusiastically" supports legislative action
"authorizing the creation of a spectrum relocation fund, which will streamline and shorten

the process for reimbursing incumbent users to facilitate their relocation to new spectrum

and thus expedite the original spectrum to new services and technologies."

While admitting the military would prefer to keep the spectrum it currently controls,
Steven Price, deputy assistant secretary of defense for spectrum, space, sensors and
C3, said, "Spectrum is one of the most critical media of modern military operations, and
the Spectrum Relocation Fund proposal under consideration could be instrumental in
ensuring continued access to it."

Steven K. Berry, SVP for government affairs at the influential CTIA said his organization
"fully supported" the Upton legislation, noting the bill meets the wireless industry's
three
key policy principles: fully funding government relocation; workable timelines for both
the
wireless industry and the government incumbents; and certainty and accountability in
developing relocation cost estimates, using auction proceeds to fund relocations, and
following relocation cost and timing estimates.

"Two years ago, the Sebago Group produced an economic study estimating that
advanced wireless services could spur $500 billion in economic growth and the creation of
over 400,000 jobs in the U.S. economy over the next 10 years," Berry said. "This
legislation encourages growth, stimulates investment and the creation of new jobs in the
high-tech sector."

http://dc.internet.com/news/print.php/2170161

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