Levin Says Congress Should Impose D-Block Deadline
Blair Levin, who headed the FCC National Broadband Plan work, said Congress should impose a deadline on the commission to address the 700 MHz D-block, during a discussion at a Free State Foundation conference on Friday. Commissioner Robert McDowell also said he’s anxious to see the agency move forward on the D-block.
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Levin said that when he was FCC chief of staff the commission had to meet mandates in the Telecom Act and that as broadband plan coordinator he had to meet a deadline to complete the report. “It was the best thing Congress did,” he said. “If we did not have a deadline on the broadband plan I'd still be there. I think its time for the FCC to give the FCC a deadline.” The deadline should require the FCC to act within a year or 18 months, Levin said. “The FCC might as well start Monday and just say `we're going to start planning for a commercial auction because that’s the current law,'” he said. “If Congress wishes to reallocate the [D-block] that’s fine.”
"The D-block is one quarter of the spectrum that Congress told the FCC to auction with the DTV Act,” said McDowell. “The mandate that’s on the books right now says auction it. I've been a proponent of that. I don’t tell Congress what to do, they tell me what to do. The last time Congress told us what to do it was to auction off that spectrum.” McDowell said a “diplomatic” approach the FCC could follow would be to release a rulemaking on the D-block asking about steps to take whether or not the band is reallocated. Tom Sugrue, T-Mobile senior vice president, a proponent of auctioning the D-block spectrum, questioned whether Congress will be able to act on a D-block reallocation bill.
"It’s hard to get bills enacted and there are serious budget issues,” Sugrue said. “In a tough budget year it may be a heavy lift.” Public safety groups have been effective in lobbying for legislation, he said. “If you talk to them they see this as the last chance to get broadcast spectrum and I'm not sure that’s the case,” Sugrue said. “I think they've been stoked up by some of their corporate supporters. Public safety, God bless them. … They're lobbying very hard and every effectively.”