Hearing on Govt. Spectrum Use Slated

The House Communications Subcommittee has slated yet another in a string of spectrum hearings, this one on federal government spectrum use.

No witnesses have been called, but look for the National Telecommunications & Information Administration to be represented, since that is the agency that oversees government spectrum use.

Subcommittee Chairman Greg Walden (R-Ore.) had signaled there would be a series of spectrum hearings, and has been as good as his word. He has indicated his committee would not be rushed on the issue of spectrum reclamation or incentive auctions, even as Senator Jay Rockefeller (D-W. Va.), chairman of the Commerce Committee on the other side of the Hill has been trying to get an incentive auction bill approved by Sept. 11.

Walden has said he did not know whether a bill would pass this year, telling an American Cable Association audience in April that he would not be "rushed by arbitrary or historical timelines or deadlines," adding: "I want to make sure the subcommittee and the full committee have as solid an understanding of spectrum needs and demands and issues involved as possible.

John Eggerton

Contributing editor John Eggerton has been an editor and/or writer on media regulation, legislation and policy for over four decades, including covering the FCC, FTC, Congress, the major media trade associations, and the federal courts. In addition to Multichannel News and Broadcasting + Cable, his work has appeared in Radio World, TV Technology, TV Fax, This Week in Consumer Electronics, Variety and the Encyclopedia Britannica.