Outgoing Speaker of the House John Boehner pledged not to repeat history to the detriment of 2016 Republican presidential hopefuls and to his successor, now-Speaker Paul Ryan. So his parting gift and legacy was to take the lead and help Congress dodge a very large bullet when it raised the debt ceiling, set federal spending levels for the next two years and, most importantly, avoided a government shutdown in the process.
The detailed appropriations process still looms, however, with plenty of opportunities for Democrats to make unrealistic spending requests, or for some obstructionist Republicans to slow progress. Yet the last action of Speaker Boehner plowed through the historic, and all-to-common, debris of congressional dysfunction to facilitate legislative gains, both large and small.
For instance, the compromise legislation includes a very important, though lesser-known, requirement that the federal government identify and sell wireless spectrum that it has not been utilizing or under-utilizing for years. This action is similar, albeit far less polarizing, to the government’s leveraging of its strategic oil reserves for needed supply at the gas pump and revenue for the federal government. According to industry experts, spectrum accounts for $10 trillion in consumer benefits each year, a staggering figure.
This initiative, appropriately titled the “Spectrum Pipeline Act,” mandates that the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and the Commerce Department’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA), identify and sell unused and underused spectrum currently held by federal agencies to commercial entities. In doing so, Congress can raise revenue without raising taxes, while simultaneously expanding the breadth off the wireless industry for the benefit of the more than 355 million subscribers it serves.
But just as the larger spending levels are merely a start, leaders in Congress knew the Spectrum Pipeline Act, as signed by the president, would fall woefully short in meeting his 2010 promise to double the roughly 540 megahertz of wireless spectrum licenses owned by the U.S. in 2011
, by the year 2020. As a result, Senate Commerce Committee Chairman John Thune recently introduced the MOBILE NOW Act, a measure that would not only amend the budget deal to increase the amount of airwaves deployed in the short term, but also create a long-term wireless pipeline by codifying the president’s goals into law.
This piece of remarkably-bipartisan legislation, while still in progress, is the solution that the budget deal cannot deliver upon. It will be front and center at a Commerce Committee hearing November 18. To benefit American consumers and businesses, Congress should promptly pass the bill.
As I have previously emphasized, spectrum is a finite resource. With mobile data traffic nearly 40 times higher today than a mere six years ago, current spectrum allocations will not be sufficient to meet consumer demand for wireless voice and data services.
“Network traffic is increasing,” said an official at the FCC’s wireless bureau in 2012. “[Carriers] can manage it for the next couple years, but demand is inevitably going to exceed the available spectrum.”
We cannot create more spectrum, we can only reallocate it — and it’s critically important that we put it to the best use possible. “From faster LTE networks to smart appliances and Internet-connected vehicles, the additional spectrum could support a range of applications and services,” reports the Washington Post. Perhaps more immediately, wireless consumers would gain better service for their phones.
According to CTIA-the Wireless Association, once spectrum is allocated, it takes thirteen years to bring it to market. And despite an upcoming, critical spectrum auction sometime in 2016 that will transfer some airwaves from broadcasters to wireless providers, the airwaves controlled by the federal government are seen as a “potentially fruitful source of spectrum in the coming decades.”
With the support of key Republican leaders on technology and telecommunications issues, and the tangible legislation in the form of the MOBILE NOW Act, we are finally in a position to end the cycle of government’s hoarding of spectrum, and realize the true potential of “5G” networks.
Leaders in Congress must take additional steps to ensure our wireless networks have what they need to meet consumer demand. If not, we risk jeopardizing the very future of the wireless services we rely upon every day. That simply cannot happen.
Christopher D. Coursen is founder of The Status Group. He formerly served as Majority Communications Counsel for the Senate Commerce Committee and advised the Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush Administrations. Thinking of submitting an op-ed to the Washington Examiner? Be sure to read our guidelines on submissions.
