Thune Applauds Senate Passage of His MOBILE NOW Act
“The MOBILE NOW Act, which has waited 18 months to advance through the Senate, accelerates us toward a future where extremely fast broadband is much more widely available and internet-enabled devices will play an increasingly prominent role in everything from household items to agricultural production.”
WASHINGTON — U.S. Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.), chairman of Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, issued the following statement on Senate approval by unanimous consent of S. 19, the MOBILE NOW Act, a bill to boost the development of next-generation gigabit wireless broadband services, including 5G, by ensuring more spectrum is made available for commercial use and by reducing the red tape associated with building broadband networks.
“Spectrum fuels the 21st century’s wireless economy, and this bill will help make much more of that fuel available to the public,” said Thune. “The MOBILE NOW Act, which has waited 18 months to advance through the Senate, accelerates us toward a future where extremely fast broadband is much more widely available and internet-enabled devices will play an increasingly prominent role in everything from household items to agricultural production.”
Highlights of the MOBILE NOW Act (S.19):
Making 500 megahertz available: A 2010 executive order set a goal of making available 500 MHz of federal spectrum for private sector use by 2020. The MOBILE NOW Act makes that goal the law.
Speeding up 5G infrastructure: Next-generation gigabit wireless services, like 5G, will rely on smaller and more numerous antenna and infrastructure systems than current cellular technology. Federal agencies would have a new obligation to make decisions on applications and permit requests for placing wireless infrastructure on federal property in a timely and reasonable manner.
Spectrum assessments: The bill directs the Federal government to conduct assessments of spectrum in the 3 GHz band and in the millimeter wave frequencies to determine whether authorizing licensed or unlicensed wireless broadband services in those bands is feasible, and if so, which frequencies are best suited for such operations. Frequencies totaling more than 13 gigahertz of bandwidth will be studied, most of which are in the millimeter wave frequencies that will be critical for next-generation wireless networks, including 5G mobile networks.
Dig once: The Act facilitates adoption of safe and efficient “dig once” policies by states. Dig once is the idea that a single conduit through which all broadband wires can be run should be laid in the ground at the same time as other below-ground infrastructure work, like highway construction. Dig once can reduce costs for deployment of broadband infrastructure.
National broadband facilities asset database: The bill creates a central, online inventory of federal government property assets available or appropriate for private-sector deployment of broadband facilities. Such information includes the location of buildings and points of contact for siting applications. State and local governments would be permitted to voluntarily submit information about their assets to the inventory.
Reallocation incentives: The Commerce Department would be directed to issue a report within 18 months on additional legislative or regulatory proposals to incentivize Federal entities to relinquish or share their spectrum with non-federal spectrum users.
Immediate transfer of funds for agencies: The MOBILE NOW Act accelerates the relocation of Federal entities by allowing existing Spectrum Relocation Fund balances to be transferred to agencies for transition efforts immediately upon completion of an auction, rather than after the actual receipt by the Fund of auction proceeds. By immediately executing their transition plans, agencies would reduce their timelines to vacate, potentially increasing auction proceeds due to the value of accelerated access to the auctioned bands.
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