[Congressional Bills 106th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 4758 Introduced in House (IH)]







106th CONGRESS
  2d Session
                                H. R. 4758

 To permit wireless carriers to obtain sufficient spectrum to meet the 
growing demand for existing services and ensure that such carriers have 
 the spectrum they need to deploy fixed and advanced services, and for 
                            other purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                             June 26, 2000

 Mr. Stearns (for himself, Mr. Tauzin, Mr. Oxley, Mr. Deal of Georgia, 
 Mr. Ehrlich, and Mr. Rogan) introduced the following bill; which was 
                 referred to the Committee on Commerce

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
 To permit wireless carriers to obtain sufficient spectrum to meet the 
growing demand for existing services and ensure that such carriers have 
 the spectrum they need to deploy fixed and advanced services, and for 
                            other purposes.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Spectrum Resource Assurance Act''.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

    The Congress finds that--
            (1) the Federal Communications Commission's spectrum cap 
        rule prevents any entity from holding an attributable interest 
        in a total of more than 45 megahertz of licensed cellular, 
        broadband personal communications service, and specialized 
        mobile radio spectrum regulated as commercial mobile radio 
        service in any geographic area;
            (2) without sufficient spectrum, wireless carriers will 
        face increasing difficulty in meeting the growing demand for 
        existing services;
            (3) spectrum constraints will also impede the deployment of 
        fixed and advanced wireless services;
            (4) by precluding wireless carriers from obtaining 
        sufficient spectrum to realize economies of scale and scope, 
        the spectrum cap could raise the costs of offering wireless 
        services;
            (5) application of the spectrum cap in future auctions will 
        artificially limit the pool of eligible bidders and possibly 
        prevent the spectrum from being distributed to the carrier or 
        carriers who will make the most efficient and productive use of 
        it;
            (6) while the Federal Communications Commission has decided 
        not to apply its spectrum cap to the UHF licenses that must be 
        auctioned this year, there are relatively few of these licenses 
        and the availability of this spectrum will be delayed until 
        incumbent broadcasters are relocated;
            (7) the wireless industry has experienced strong growth and 
        competitive development, with three-quarters of Americans now 
        having a choice of five or more providers of wireless services;
            (8) assignments of additional spectrum will be needed to 
        enable mobile operators to keep pace with the continued growth 
        of mobile telephony and the demand for new Third Generation 
        mobile systems (hereinafter referred to as ``3G'') services;
            (9) the application of the current spectrum cap rules to 
        new spectrum auctions by the Federal Communications Commission 
        would greatly impede the deployment of 3G services, and would 
        threaten the global competitiveness of U.S. industry;
            (10) the spectrum cap was originally adopted in order to 
        prevent the concentration of control over spectrum in too few 
        hands, but with competition in the provision of wireless 
        services now a reality, rigid structural regulation like a 
        spectrum cap is no longer necessary to ensure a robust wireless 
        marketplace; and
            (11) the antitrust agencies' review of mergers between 
        wireless carriers will prevent undue market concentration by 
        wireless carriers, even in the absence of a spectrum cap.

SEC. 3. PROHIBITION ON SPECTRUM AGGREGATION LIMITS.

    The Federal Communications Commission--
            (1) shall not apply any limit on spectrum aggregation 
        (including 47 C.F.R. 20.6(a) or any successor regulation) to 
        any license or other authorization for commercial mobile radio 
        service granted in any competitive bidding proceeding held 
        after January 1, 2000; and
            (2) shall not apply any such limit to any subsequent 
        application for the transfer or assignment of a license 
        described in paragraph (1).
                                 <all>