Lawmakers, Officials Brace for Coming DOD Report's Impact on Spectrum Bill Deal Prospects

Wireless Future Project director Michael Calabrese is quoted in a Communications Daily article about how lawmakers and officials are bracing for how an upcoming Department of Defense report’s recommendations for repurposing the 3.1-3.45 GHz spectrum band could impact a spectrum legislative package’s prospects on Capitol Hill, with Calabrese offering some insight on the situation.

“Everyone expects that the PATHSS report” will recommend a sharing apparatus for the lower 3 GHz band, but it “might be at much lower power levels than what the mobile industry traditionally uses for its business model,” said New America’s Open Technology Institute Wireless Future Project Director Michael Calabrese. “That doesn’t mean there can’t be an auction” covering some portions of the spectrum, with the current citizens broadband radio service band model being one potential path forward. Rounds and other Senate Armed Services Committee members “really circled the wagons around” protecting DOD’s interests on the lower 3 GHz band after what they consider an unsatisfactory outcome of previous spectrum battles involving defense systems, Calabrese told us.

“I suspect and believe that we should be seeing some more movement on the Senate side” on spectrum legislation once the DOD recommendations reach Congress, said National Emergency Number Association Government Affairs Director Jonathan Gilad. An adverse DOD assessment of possible commercial use of the lower 3 GHz band “would require a conversation” about potential NG-911 funding alternatives. NENA’s “objective is not so much the particular band” the FCC could auction to fund telecom projects as it is “the revenue” such a sale could generate, he told us: If different spectrum “is identified, we are fine with that.”

“If the Commerce committees don’t feel they’ll be able to mandate a large high-power auction” of lower 3 GHz band spectrum, “it may not bring in as much revenue” as those hoping HR-3565 would result in maximum proposed funding for rip and replace, NG-911 and other priorities, Calabrese said. “It’s complicated because” HR-3565 “doesn’t take into account DOD’s costs for clearing” parts of the band. “Those costs could be so high that a high-power auction might not result in net revenue,” while a low-power sale might result in a more positive outcome, he said.