House Holds Hearing on Competition in the Wireless Industry

The House Subcommittee on Communications, Technology, and the Internet held a hearing to address several issues impacting competition in the wireless industry. Congressman Rick Boucher (D-VA), chairman of the Subcommittee, said that he would be considering legislation to preempt state regulation of wireless services and explore the need for new spectrum. Congressman Boucher said he plans to examine the need for the Commerce Department’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) to identify new (unused) spectrum for commercial wireless services. “As more people use wireless devices and as advanced applications require higher data rates over time, additional spectrum will be needed to accommodate growth,” Boucher said. “Our legislation should direct NTIA to undertake a survey of possible new spectrum that can be auctioned for this purpose.”

Similar legislation, S. 649, has been introduced in the Senate by Sen. John Kerry (D-MA) and has five co-sponsors: Sens. Bill Nelson (D-FL), Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-TX), Olympia Snowe (R-ME), Roger Wicker (R-MS) and Mark Warner (D-VA). Kerry’s Radio Spectrum Inventory Act would require NTIA and the FCC to biennially inventory each radio spectrum band from 300 MHz to 3.5 GHz, including information on the licenses or government user assigned in the band, the total spectrum allocation of each licensee or government user, the number of deployed radiators, and other information. The data would be available to the public online, but would allow a licensee or government user to petition for a partial or total exemption from publication if disclosure is harmful to national security.

At the hearing, Boucher said he is contemplating legislative action on an array of other issues, such as easing restrictions on adding additional transmitters to preexisting tower sites, ensuring automatic rights that allow wireless data to “roam” over the networks of competing carriers, ensuring an adequate availability of backhaul facilities and whether wider use of the “open access” requirements the FCC imposed last year on the auction of the 700 MHz C-block would be helpful to address handset availability.

Boucher also said his Subcommittee will undertake a measure to establish a national framework for consumer protection, a step the wireless industry supports because state laws vary, creating a complex web of requirements. But a possible flashpoint is the level of authority states would retain over consumer-related matters. Despite his plan to task the FCC with this responsibility, Boucher noted that states "should have a role in dispute resolution and enforcement," a structure that wireless carriers do not support. Senator Jay Rockefeller, (D-WV), is expected to reintroduce a wireless consumer protection bill he offered last Congress.

The issue of the high price of backhaul and the fact that Verizon Wireless and AT&T control more than 90 percent of the backhaul service in the country was a key bone of contention, with all industry witnesses –Sprint, Leap, Cellular South and FiberTower -- saying it was a potential impediment to communications deployments.