WASHINGTON – Congress should act quickly to authorize payments to television broadcasters who want to vacate their airwaves so wireless companies can offer fast-mobile Internet service, Federal Communications Commission Chairman Julius Genachowski said.
“The time is right for speedy action,” Genachowski said in remarks prepared for delivery Friday at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. “Congress should give us the authority to conduct voluntary incentive auctions.”
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Reallocating some of the airwaves used by broadcasters “has the potential to create new economic growth and investment opportunities,” the FCC said last year in its National Broadband Plan. The agency could auction airwaves and pay broadcasters with some of the proceeds, according to the document. The procedure needs congressional approval.
“We need to free up more spectrum,” Genachowski said in his remarks. “If we do, we can drive billions of dollars in new private investment” and “if we don’t tackle the spectrum challenge, network congestion will grow.”
Proponents of reallocating the broadcasters’ spectrum include the Arlington, Va.-based Consumer Electronics Association, which sponsors the show in Las Vegas. It represents device manufacturers.
Television broadcasters “have borrowed spectrum from the government and have seen their public audience shrink from 100 percent of Americans to under 10 percent,” Gary Shapiro, president of CES, said this week in his welcoming remarks at this year’s show. “They are squatting on our broadband future. This spectrum needs to be re-purposed and reused.”
The National Association of Broadcasters opposes “any element of a spectrum reallocation plan that would not be completely voluntary,” the Washington-based trade group said in a position statement on its website. “Broadcasters are poised to do even more” with their existing airwaves allocation, the statement said.
