FCC Has Timing Problem With Spectrum Plans

While the Federal Communications Commission wants to reclaim broadcast (and other) spectrum for wireless as part of the national broadband plan, a bill working its way through Congress (it has already passed the House with strong bipartisan support) anticipates that the FCC will need at least a couple of years' worth of spectrum inventory- taking to figure out where it can get said spectrum.

Rep Rick Boucher (D-VA), chairman of the House Communications Subcommittee, has made it clear that he doesn't want the FCC to decide from whom to take spectrum until a spectrum inventory is completed in conjunction with the National telecommunications and Information Administration, as directed by the bill. Such an inventory would take into account federal as well as private spectrum holdings. If the FCC forges ahead regardless, it will have some explaining to do to Boucher, as well as to the chairman emeritus of the full committee, John Dingell (D-MI), who has seconded Boucher's directive. Making matters even more complicated, Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Jay Rockefeller (D-WV) has told the FCC he wants action even faster than an agenda that FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski has suggested is unprecedented in its scope and aggressiveness.