[Congressional Bills 107th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 2535 Introduced in House (IH)]







107th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 2535

 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

                             July 17, 2001

 Mr. Stearns introduced the following bill; which was referred to the 
                    Committee on Energy and 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, except that in areas designated 
        by the Commission as Rural Service Areas (RSA's) licensees may 
        hold attributable interests in a total of no more than 55 
        megahertz;
            (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) 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;
            (7) providers of commercial mobile services will need 
        additional spectrum to keep pace with the continued growth of 
        mobile telephony and the demand for new advanced mobile 
        services;
            (8) the application of the current spectrum cap rules to 
        new spectrum auctions by the Federal Communications Commission 
        would greatly impede the deployment of advanced mobile 
        services, and would threaten the global competitiveness of U.S. 
        industry;
            (9) 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
            (10) 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.

    Section 332(c) of the Communications Act of 1934 (47 U.S.C. 332(c)) 
is amended by adding at the end the following new paragraph:
            ``(9) Spectrum aggregation limitations prohibited.--The 
        Commission shall not impose any limitation on spectrum 
        aggregation for licenses for commercial mobile radio services. 
        Any limitation on spectrum aggregation for commercial mobile 
        radio services in the regulations of the Commission (including 
        47 C.F.R. 20.6 or any successor regulation), and any limitation 
        on such aggregation contained in any license or other 
        authorization for such service, or in any competitive bidding 
        proceeding for any such license or authorization, shall cease 
        to be effective on the date of enactment of this paragraph.''.
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