Boucher: Finding More Wireless Spectrum Key Congressional Priority

House subcommittee chair lays out 2010 legislative agenda

By John Eggerton -- Broadcasting & Cable, 1/27/2010 11:12:07 AM

Finding more spectrum for wireless broadband is one of the House Communications & Internet Subcommittee's top priorities, according to Subcommittee Chairman Rick Boucher.

Talking to the Congressional Internet Caucus' State of the Net Conference on Capitol Hill Wednesday (Jan. 27), Boucher laid out his legislative agenda for 2010, and spectrum reclamation or sharing led the list.

"The [spectrum] crunch will come soon," he said, "and we're going to need new spectrum within a manner of just a few years."

Boucher noted that the committee reported out of the subcommittee last week two bills requiring a comprehensive inventory by the FCC and the National Telecommunications & Information Administration of wireless spectrum.

He noted that last year, for the first time, the number of homes with cell phones but without land lines exceeded those with landlines but without cell phones. He said that disparity will continue, and that applications will require "ever-greater data rates and bandwidth," particularly for mobile video.

Boucher said the inventory should provide the blueprint to achieve that goal.

Boucher said another priority for the committee was reforming the Universal Service Fund and expanding it to include broadband. He said the committee's discussion draft has been supported by stakeholders on both sides of the fund, contributors and beneficiaries alike. Those include AT&T, Verizon, Qwest, Frontier, and rural carrier trade associations, bridging what he said has been a classic divide between the two sides.

"I think that gives us the critical base of support necessary to move this measure now through the House. Boucher said he hoped to have a markup on the USF bill by February and March at the latest.

Other legislative priorities are passage of the satellite reauthorization bill and privacy legislation.

Boucher said the committee's oversight priorities include next week's first of what he said he thought would be a total of four congressional hearings on the Comcast/NBCU merger, which he called "one of the largest media acquisitions proposed in American history."

Boucher said also there would be a hearing on the new National Telecommunications & Information Association and Rural Utilities Service bidding guidelines for broadband stimulus dollars, and an FCC oversight hearing of the broadband plan after it is submitted (scheduled for March 17).