Spectrum hearing prompts plea for IT education funding

[Dave Farber <dave () farber net>]

Don't hold your breath


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From: Dewayne Hendricks <dewayne () warpspeed com>


Spectrum hearing prompts plea for IT education funding

Speakers want tools for training and public participation

By  Grant  Gross     March 25, 2003
<http://www.infoworld.com/article/03/03/25/HNitlearning_1.html>

WASHINGTON -- Two Democratic lawmakers and a former broadcasting
executive Tuesday called on the U.S. Congress to set up a trust fund
for technology education as the House of Representatives tries to
streamline the process in which the government auctions off some of
its radio spectrum to private companies.

Lawrence K. Grossman, former president of both NBC News and the
Public Broadcasting System, during a spectrum hearing asked
representatives to put the excess money from commercial auctions of
the reallocated spectrum into an Educational Trust Fund earmarked for
IT education and training.

The trust fund would "ensure that the nation's vast educational and
cultural heritage, housed in our museums, libraries and universities,
will reach beyond their walls and into the home, school and
workplace, even in the poorest and most remote areas of the nation,"
Grossman said. "It would transform the Internet into an enriched tool
for training, learning, and public participation."

Grossman's pleas were part of a hearing of the House Committee on
Energy and Commerce's Subcommittee on Telecommunication and the
Internet, focusing on the proposed Commercial Spectrum Enhancement
Act. The proposed law would streamline the five-plus-year process for
moving valuable spectrum allocated to the U.S. Department of Defense
and other agencies to private companies deploying 3G
(third-generation) wireless services. In July 2002, the U.S.
Department of Commerce announced that 90 MHz of wireless spectrum
would be made available for 3G. Of that total, 45 MHz would come from
commercial spectrum and 45 MHz from the Defense Department and other
federal agencies.

The federal government plans to auction that spectrum to commercial
users by early 2005, and estimates the spectrum will be available for
wireless customers some time in 2008. The Commercial Spectrum
Enhancement Act, introduced by Representative Fred Upton, a Michigan
Republican, would streamline that process and set up a trust fund,
funded by the sale of the federal spectrum, to ensure the federal
agencies would be reimbursed for the cost of moving to less
commercially popular sections of the wireless spectrum.

Steven Berry, senior vice president for governmental affairs at the
Cellular Telecommunications and Internet Association, said he
wholeheartedly supported Upton's plan, and Nancy Victory, assistant
secretary for communications and information at the Department of
Commerce's National Telecommunications and Information
Administration, said the bill was similar enough to a proposal
offered by her agency and the George W. Bush administration last
July. The administration bill didn't get through Congress last year.

Such a process would bring "certainty and predictability" to
reallocation auctions, Victory said. "Predictability of process also
will permit incumbent (agencies) to minimize any temporary
out-of-pocket costs -- a big concern for busy agencies with tight
budgets," she said.

However, Steven Price, deputy assistant secretary of defense for
spectrum, sensors and C3 (command, control and communications), said
the Defense Department has some concerns about how fast Upton bill's
speed will move the auction along. The bill would give agencies about
three months to identify the costs of relocating to another piece of
the spectrum, Price said, whereas 18 months is a more reasonable
time-frame.

Some representatives also expressed concerns about the Defense
Department (DOD) losing spectrum in a time when the agency uses
wireless technologies to do a variety of tasks, including guiding
missiles and other weapons. Price said the military has no plans to
shrink the amount of spectrum it uses.

"If someone had asked us, 'do you want to move or not want to move?'
we wouldn't want to move," he said of the reallocation process. "Over
time, the DOD believes we'll need more spectrum, not less."

Democratic Representative John Dingell of Michigan also raised
concerns that the Upton bill doesn't give Congress enough oversight
over how the spectrum auction funds are claimed by federal agencies.
The Upton bill gives Congressional committees a 30-day notification
of auction funds being transferred to agencies from the trust fund
set up in the Upton bill.

"Unfortunately, my experience with government agencies and, in
particular, with the Department of Defense, indicates that a bit more
oversight is necessary to ensure that scarce federal dollars are
being spent wisely and in a manner that is consistent with what the
Congress intended," Dingell said. "Indeed, this committee's past
oversight investigations have found many examples of wasteful
spending by agencies, and particularly the Department of Defense."

Dingell joined Grossman in calling for a second trust fund to benefit
technology education at public schools, and Democrat Representative
Edward Markey of Massachusetts urged the committee to consider the
educational trust fund proposal in his Spectrum Commons and Digital
Dividends Act, introduced March 20. Markey also called for Congress
to make more unlicensed spectrum available for the public's use.

"When the FCC (U.S. Federal Communications Commission) does decide to
proceed with auctions as a means of granting licenses for use of the
public's airwaves, the public deserves to reap the benefits of the
sale of licenses to its airwaves," Markey said, while calling for a
Digital Dividend Trust Fund. "These benefits should not only manifest
themselves in the offering of new commercial services and the
temporary infusion of cash into the federal treasury."

However, Democrats on the subcommittee couldn't even agree that a
second trust fund for technology education was a top priority.
Representative Bart Stupak, a Michigan Democrat, suggested the
subcommittee consider a third trust fund to help emergency
responders, such as police and firefighters, better use their chunk
of the spectrum.

Grant Gross is a Washington correspondent for the IDG News Service,
an InfoWorld affiliate.


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