Bipartisan bill would block FCC from seizing spectrum

Leaders of the House Energy and Commerce Communications Subcommittee unveiled a bipartisan bill Thursday that seeks to free up more airwaves for commercial wireless services without forcing TV broadcasters to relinquish spectrum.

The bill was introduced by House Energy and Commerce Communications Subcommittee Chairman Rep. Rick Boucher, D-Va., and ranking member Rep. Cliff Stearns, R-Fla. It would authorize the FCC to auction off spectrum that broadcasters would give up in return for a portion of the revenue generated by the sale.

These "incentive auctions" are recommended in the agency's sweeping national broadband plan, released in March.

The measure is aimed at supporting the FCC's effort to expand the amount of available spectrum to meet growing demand for wireless communications and avert what the agency has warned is a looming spectrum crisis.

It also signaled a big win for TV broadcasters with language that prohibits the FCC from requiring stations to give up airwaves they want to retain.

While focusing on voluntary options, the FCC left open the idea of involuntary spectrum acquisition in its national broadband plan. "If the incentive auctions do not yield a significant amount of spectrum," the plan says the FCC should pursue other avenues, including "transition to a cellular architecture on a voluntary or involuntary basis."

FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski has said publicly that the auctions would be voluntary. But broadcasters have been alarmed by the plan's explicit reference to the option of "involuntary" seizures of broadcast spectrum by the agency.

"As NAB has previously articulated, we have no quarrel with incentive auctions that are truly voluntary, and the Boucher-Stearns bill is a clear step in the right direction," said Dennis Wharton, spokesman for the National Association of Broadcasters.

The Association for Maximum Service Television sent out a statement in support of the new bill. "Chairman Boucher and Rep. Stearns have struck the proper public interest balance by providing a truly voluntary mechanism for those stations that may wish to surrender spectrum," association president David Donovan said.

For its part, the FCC issued a generally supportive statement about the bill, but did not address specific provisions in the measure or the issue of seizing spectrum from broadcasters.

"We're pleased to see consensus growing across government for the voluntary incentive auctions outlined in the national broadband plan," said FCC spokeswoman Jen Howard. "This pro-investment spectrum strategy will spur economic growth, create jobs, and promote U.S. global leadership in mobile."

Earlier this month, Senate Commerce Communications Subcommittee Chairman John Kerry, D-Mass., and Sen. Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, introduced a companion bill to the one Boucher and Stearns offered in the House.