House Communications Subcommittee to Hold Hearing on Federal Spectrum

September hearing will focus on freeing up government bandwidth for commercial use

By John Eggerton -- Broadcasting & Cable, 8/21/2012 1:59:20 PM

The House Energy and Commerce Committee's Communications Subcommittee will hold a hearing next month on commercial use of government spectrum.

Federal agencies are being asked by the Obama Administration to give up or share some of their spectrum in the push for more bandwidth for commercial wireless broadband and subcommittee Chairman Greg Walden (R-Ore.) also wants to talk about how to free up more federal spectrum for commercial use.

The committee, of which Walden is a member ex officio, has its own working group on the issue and Walden said Tuesday after a series of meetings, the committee had decided to schedule a September hearing -- no date has been set or witnesses announced. 

"As the single largest spectrum user, the federal government could save taxpayers money and make more frequencies available to meet American consumers' growing demand for mobile broadband services," Walden said in announcing the hearing.

The committee was active in the passage of legislation to authorize incentive auctions to reclaim spectrum from broadcasters to help free it up for wireless broadband and other uses. The bill also directed the federal government to find its own spectrum to reclaim for commercial wireless use.