[Congressional Record Volume 165, Number 185 (Tuesday, November 19, 2019)]
[Senate]
[Pages S6642-S6643]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                         FCC and C-band Auction

  Mr. KENNEDY. Madam President, I want to spend a very few minutes 
today to say thanks. I want to thank Chairman Ajit Pai and his 
colleagues at the Federal Communications Commission. The Chairman 
announced yesterday that he was going to put 5G technology and the 
American taxpayer first by holding a public auction, as opposed to a 
private auction, of what we call the C-band. It was a courageous 
decision that he made against a lot of pressure.
  Allow me, for just a few minutes, to explain why that is important. 
We have all heard about 5G, which stands for fifth generation. It is a 
brandnew wireless technology. It means incredibly fast internet and 
cell phone calls. It means the ability to deliver as much as 100 times 
more data through wireless technology than we can do today.
  We will notice it in our iPads; we will notice it in our computers; 
but we will notice it also in our cell phones.
  As you know, a cell phone is really a sophisticated walkie-talkie. I 
will use the cell phone as an example to explain 5G. A cell phone is 
just a very sophisticated, much more complicated walkie-talkie. How 
does a walkie-talkie work? How does a cell phone work? Radio waves. The 
scientific term is ``electromagnetic radiation.''
  A radio wave is just what it says, a wave that goes from my cell 
phone, say, to the President's cell phone through an antenna, a 
transmitter, and a receiver. A radio wave and the air through which it 
travels and the right to send a radio wave is a sovereign asset. It 
belongs to the American people. The American people own that

[[Page S6643]]

radio wave and the right to send it. Our FCC gets to decide who gets to 
use those radio waves and who has the right to send those radio waves.

  There is a particular type of radio wave that is absolutely perfect 
for 5G. It is between 180 megahertz and 300 megahertz. Why are these 
radio waves so perfect for 5G? Well, because they strike a balance. 
First, the radio waves in that spectrum, as it is called, can go a 
fairly long distance, and they can carry huge amounts of data. That is 
going to make driverless cars possible. We have heard about those--the 
internet of things. That is going to make remote surgery possible, 
where a doctor who is in one place physically and through the internet, 
using a robot, can perform surgery on someone 1,000 miles away. 5G 
going through these special radio waves is going to make all that 
possible. It is going to change our lives.
  Right now, those radio waves--I will call them the C-band spectrum--
as I said, are owned by the American people. They are being used by 
three satellite companies--two from Luxembourg and one from Canada--and 
some other companies. They are satellite companies. They don't own 
those radio waves. They don't even have a license to use those radio 
waves. They didn't pay anything to get to use those radio waves. The 
FCC said they could use them. It is sort of like a month-to-month lease 
or rental agreement where you don't have to pay any rent.
  Some time ago, those three companies came to the FCC and said: Even 
though we don't own those radio waves you allow us to use and even 
though the American people own those radio waves, which are perfect for 
5G, we are willing to give them up to use for 5G, but here is what we 
want you to do.
  The three foreign companies said: We want you to give us those radio 
waves, and then we will auction them off to the telecommunications 
companies that want to use the radio waves for 5G.
  This was the kicker: The three foreign corporations said they want to 
keep the money.
  Investment bankers estimate that through that auction being conducted 
by those three foreign corporations, as much as $60 billion would have 
been generated. That is how much telecommunications companies would pay 
to get the license to use those radio waves.
  Some people encouraged the FCC to do that. They said that we ought to 
do it because these three foreign companies can do an auction faster 
than the FCC can--even though the three foreign companies had never 
done an auction of spectrum and even though the FCC has done over 100 
public auctions for other radio waves that the FCC has auctioned off. 
In doing that, the fine men and women at the FCC in charge of these 
auctions--they have been doing it for 25 years--have brought in $123 
billion for the American people. That will build a lot of interstate, 
it will educate a lot of kids, and it will pay a lot of soldiers.
  But our three friends--these foreign satellite companies--still said: 
Even though we have no experience, we can do it faster. If you let the 
FCC do it, it will take them 7 years.
  Well, that just wasn't accurate. I have spoken to the people in 
charge of doing auctions at the FCC. In fact, on Thursday, they are 
going to appear before a subcommittee that I chair. We are going to 
talk about it some more. I don't know where this figure of 7 years came 
from, but it is just not accurate.
  Nonetheless, the FCC came under--there are swamp creatures in the 
government; we know that. Some of these swamp creatures in and out of 
government put an awful lot of pressure on the FCC. These swamp 
creatures are trying to help some of their friends in the 
telecommunications business. One of the foreign corporations spent 
about half a million dollars lobbying. I am not saying there is 
something wrong with that. We all have the right to petition our 
government. But that is just the fact. I don't mean it in a pejorative 
sense.
  The FCC was under a lot of pressure, but yesterday, the Chairman of 
the FCC, Ajit Pai, looked at all this. He resisted the pressure, and he 
announced that we are going to have a public auction. We are going to 
let every telecommunications company in America that wants to bid on 
these valuable air waves come forward and bid. We are going to do an 
auction within a year and probably less, not 7 years, and the money 
that is going to be generated is going to go to the owner of those 
radio waves, not the foreign companies that, through our benevolence, 
are now using those radio waves. The money is going to go to the 
American people.
  I know what you are thinking. You are thinking: Gosh, how was this 
ever even an issue? This should have been a no-brainer.
  Well, that is part of what is wrong with Washington, DC, in my 
judgment. Sometimes--not always but sometimes--the American people 
aren't put first. But yesterday, Ajit Pai, our Chairman at the FCC, put 
them first, and I just wanted to stand up today and tell him a genuine 
and heartfelt thank-you.
  I yield the floor.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The senior assistant bill clerk called the roll.
  Mr. LANKFORD. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.