House Commerce Committee Continues its Review of the Use of Federal Spectrum

The House Commerce Committee’s Subcommittee on Communications and Technology, chaired by Rep. Greg Walden (R-OR), held a hearing to examine the use of federal spectrum. Experts from the Department of Defense, the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA), and the communications industry provided input on how to make spectrum that is currently allocated to the federal government available for the private sector and consumers, specifically focusing on the merits of relocating and sharing federal spectrum to create additional resources and meet growing demands.

Everybody agreed that spectrum sharing should be on the table, or part of the puzzle, or a tool in the toolkit, and that, at least theoretically, clearing spectrum was preferable to sharing in the abstract. But as a practical matter, given the growing demand and the need to get spectrum as swiftly as possible, Democrats tended to put more stock in sharing as a key part of the strategy. Republicans suggested it should be studied, but was more of a fallback position, and should not be premised on cost and time estimates of clearing spectrum that were not based on independent analysis and could be overestimated.

NTIA has estimated that it will cost $18 billion and take 10 years to clear 95 MHz of beachfront spectrum now used by the Department of Defense and other federal agencies, an assertion an NTIA official repeated at the hearing, though conceding that number was a starting point rather than something set in stone. NTIA has said recently that sharing needs to be an important part of the equation, a point seconded by the president's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology in a recent report, though one not yet signed off on by the president.

Mark Goldstein, director of physical infrastructure issues for the GAO, said that some of the info NTIA used to make that cost/time estimate was not accurate, and that the system it used for gathering it would not change for several years. GAO has recommended the NTIA improve its spectrum data collection.

Republicans expressed skepticism about the feasibility of spectrum sharing. "Spectrum sharing may hold potential in the future for some spectrum bands where clearing is impossible or we have certainty that the cost of relocation exceeds the value of the spectrum," Chairman Greg said. "I am not ready to accept the opinion that 'the norm for spectrum use should be sharing' today. That’s simply not good enough." Rep. Mary Bono Mack (R-CA) also argued that spectrum clearing is preferable to sharing. "Unfortunately, the Administration seems willing to settle only for spectrum sharing – and in my opinion, has based that strategy on incomplete analysis," she said. "Spectrum sharing is an important piece of the puzzle, but by no means the only solution."