Terry Touts Congressional Focus on Spectrum
Rep. Lee Terry, R-Neb., said spectrum is the “big issue” facing the House Communications Subcommittee. “We know there is not enough spectrum,” the vice chairman said Wednesday night at a Phoenix Center event. Consumer preferences toward streaming video and audio are changing rapidly and “none of that happens without spectrum,” he said.
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Terry said lawmakers aren’t resting on their laurels. The Federal Spectrum Working Group will “do granular inspections” of government spectrum holdings, he said, and the group hopes to release preliminary results in August. Meanwhile the ball is “in the FCC’s court,” with regard to the commission’s voluntary incentive auction of broadcast TV channels, Terry said. He added that though he expects the spectrum auction to “take a long time” and members of Congress are “relying on a lot of money coming from that."
Terry snubbed a recent bill that aims to auction the 1755-1780 MHz band for the commercial market and offer the Defense Department protections for reallocation. Introduced by Reps. Cliff Stearns, R-Fla., and Doris Matsui, D-Calif., the bill would require the FCC to pair for commercial auction the 1755-1780 MHz band with the 2155-2180 MHz band (CD April 27 p3). Terry said HR-4817 is a bit premature: Stearns and Matsui are “putting the cart before the horse.” Terry has “no problem” with industry buying and selling spectrum, he said. “God bless them."
Terry said “there is a certain level of hypocrisy” in the U.S. government’s opposition to international regulation of the Internet. Net neutrality gave the FCC the opportunity to regulate the Internet “at the content level, or at least the pricing and packaging and business practices,” he said. “The U.S. is saying do as I say, don’t do as I do.” Lawmakers from both parties affirmed their united opposition to any effort by the ITU to impose international governance of the Web, at a recent subcommittee hearing (CD June 1 p1). “The message we sent to [Russian President Vladimir] Putin is that we are unified on this,” Terry said.
Terry hedged on the subcommittee’s plans for a comprehensive rewrite of the 1996 Telecom Act. “I want to protect states’ right to regulate and work with telecom in state borders,” he said. Terry said the subcommittee plans to investigate how the telecom market has changed in piecemeal form and will hold hearings on data and video in the coming months.