Locke Optimistic About Agencies’ Support for Freeing Up Wireless Spectrum
LAS VEGAS -- There is “strong support” from other federal agencies for efforts to free up spectrum for wireless broadband, Commerce Secretary Gary Locke said at the Consumer Electronics Show. He told reporters he remains confident that 115 MHz can “readily” be freed up within five years, with more to come after that.
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Some of the 115 MHz will come from Commerce Department agencies themselves, Locke said when asked if he was getting pushback from federal agencies being asked to give up spectrum. And there is “strong support and a willingness to move forward” from other agencies, he said, particularly since the spectrum would be auctioned. Freeing up spectrum is one of several actions being pushed by the Obama administration to stimulate the economy, Locke said, with others including speeding the patent process and improving the research and development tax credit. He said there’s also “an intense focus on empowering the private sector to innovate."
If the Obama administration is focusing on freeing spectrum, “we're behind it,” CEA President Gary Shapiro said in response. He said the consumer electronics industry will work to get Congress to give FCC additional authority to auction the spectrum. Shapiro said he “loves broadcasters,” when asked about his keynote Thursday that was seen as attacking them (CD Jan 7 p5). He said the CE and broadcast industries often engage in joint efforts, and broadcasters remain “very important on a local basis."
But broadcasters got their spectrum at a time when they were the only medium for getting messages quickly to people, Shapiro said: “That’s no longer true.” He said there now are many ways besides over-the-air TV to get messages out, and broadcasters could continue to provide information with a reduced chunk of spectrum. “Broadcasters take seriously our role as first informers in times of crisis,” an NAB spokesman responded. “It is sheer fantasy to suggest the reliability of broadcasting’s ‘one-to-everyone’ transmission system can be replicated by ‘one-to-one’ cellphone network transmissions."
Broadcasters “are sitting on a huge amount of spectrum, and it is statistically underutilized,” Shapiro said. He advocated auctioning a portion of the spectrum, with a portion of the spectrum proceeds going to broadcasters. Neither he nor Locke would say how the proceeds should be divided. Shapiro said the decision-making process is likely to be political, with broadcasters naturally trying to maximize their return on the spectrum.
NTIA’s broadband stimulus funding went to “high-quality projects,” Locke said when asked about government oversight. He said a key is that recipients don’t get the money until they show results, which makes it even more important that the government continuing funding resolution provided money to pay for such oversight.