Sixteen Former FCC Commissioners, including some who rose to Chair, urged Congress to reinstate the agency’s spectrum auction authority. Signatories of a letter included Ajit Pai, Tom Wheeler, Bill Kennard, Reed Hundt, Jonathan Adelstein, Meredith Attwell Baker, Mignon Clyburn, Julius Genachowski, Gloria Tristani, Susan Ness, Dick Wiley, Robert McDowell, Deborah Taylor Tate, Michael Copps, Rachelle Chong and Harold Furchtgott-Roth.
“As former leaders of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), we have worked together, on a bipartisan basis, to lay the foundation for America’s global wireless leadership,” read their letter. “Although our policy priorities at times differed, we share an understanding that central to Americans’ wireless success is the FCC’s spectrum auction authority.”
Congress allowed the Commission’s auction authority to expire in March, for the first time ever, Inside Towers reported. The agency began holding spectrum auctions for licenses in 1994.
The former FCC Commissioners and Chairs stressed “troubling consequences” in terms of national security and global economic leadership if Congress does not renew the authorization. “Delay in renewing auction authority risks ceding a global competitive advantage to other countries, particularly China, which has been aggressively making spectrum available for 5G and investing in next-generation wireless technologies to capture global markets,” they stated.
Numerous telecom associations, including NATE, WIA, CTIA, CCA and others, have lobbied lawmakers to reinstate the agency’s auction authority multiple times. The Communications and Technology Subcommittee of the House Energy and Commerce Committee sent a bill to the full House that includes an extension, Inside Towers reported.
By Leslie Stimson, Inside Towers Washington Bureau Chief
Reader Interactions