A new bill introduced by members of the House and Energy Commerce Committee enables government agencies to get a cut from wireless spectrum auction proceeds.
The new House bill was introduced on Monday, December 9, and will allow government agencies to earn profits. The bill is also seen as a way to spur the agencies into action and give up underused airwaves.
The bill was introduced a few days after the FCC announcement that the incentive auction it had planned for the TV broadcast auction has been delayed to mid 2015. On Friday, December 6, FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler revealed via a blog post that the agency needed more time to make sure that the complex design of the auction was executed correctly.
Henry Waxman (D-CA), Energy and Commerce Committee Ranking Member; Greg Walden (R-OR), Communications and Technology Subcommittee Chairman; and, Anna Eshoo (D-CA), Ranking Member, are co-sponsoring the bill. The bill was introduced by Rep. Brett Guthrie (R-KY) and Rep. Doris Matsui (D-CA).
The auction will be designed in such a way that it will enable spectrum holders to offer their spectrum in a supposed reverse auction. This spectrum will then be offered via a regular forward auction where wireless service providers can bid on the same.
Government agencies will stand to gain in exchange of giving up the spectrum or relocating to a different one as they will get a cut of the forward auction proceeds. Per the new bill, agencies will get 1 percent of the revenue from the sale of the spectrum.
"As the single largest spectrum user in the country, the United States government must be more efficient in managing our spectrum. By providing financial incentives for the first time, this bipartisan legislation will serve as a model to encourage the government to reallocate non-critical spectrum for commercial purposes," said Matsui in a statement. "It will provide many federal agencies an opportunity that will be hard to refuse, particularly as our nation's budget continues to shrink."
The Congress has already authorized the FCC to conduct three auctions over the next few years which will likely bring more spectrum to the market. However, the wireless industry is of the opinion that it requires more spectrum thanks to the growing demand for wireless broadband services.
"The federal government is the single largest holder of spectrum below 3 GHz,"' said Jot Carpenter, VP of government affairs for CTIA, the wireless trade group, in a statement. "And incenting agencies to relinquish bands they aren't utilizing or using efficiently can help the commercial mobile industry gain access to the spectrum it needs to maintain America's place as the world's leader in wireless broadband service."
