House Energy & Commerce Communications and Technology Subcommittee Unanimously Approves Matsui-Guthrie Spectrum Legislation
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Wednesday, December 2, 2015
CONTACT:
Rep. Doris Matsui - LAUREN DART
(202) 225-7163
Rep. Brett Guthrie ERIC BERGREN
(202) 225-3501
House Energy andamp; Commerce Communications and Technology Subcommittee Unanimously Approves Matsui-Guthrie Spectrum Legislation
The Federal Spectrum Incentive Act, introduced by Congresswoman Matsuiand Congressman Guthrie, would make available new federal spectrum for the wireless economy
Today, the House Energy andamp; Commerce Communications and Technology Subcommittee unanimously approved H.R. 1641, The Federal Spectrum Incentive Act of 2015. The Act will create new incentives for federal agencies to relinquish or share underutilized spectrum for commercial mobile broadband services. The bill will establish the first ever spectrum incentive auction for federal agencies and will allow federal spectrum users to share in the revenues from the auction.
"Spectrum is the invisible infrastructure of the 21st century economy," said Congresswoman Matsui. "As we look to the deployment of next generation 5G wireless networks, we need an aggressive spectrum strategy so that the United States continues to lead the world in innovation. The Federal Spectrum Incentive Act is a creative approach to putting more spectrum in the pipeline, and its passage is an important step in the growth of our wireless economy."
"Spectrum is an important and limited resource," said Congressman Guthrie. "By encouraging federal agencies to make additional spectrum available, we can invest in innovation and ensure spectrum is available to meet the high demand for it in the marketplace. The results of the AWS-3 auction were unprecedented and give me confidence that the Federal Spectrum Incentive Act can build on this success to spur further economic growth. I applaud the passage of this bill today."
The Federal Spectrum Incentive Act has received broad support from the tech and telecomm community both in the 114th and 113th Congresses, including the High Tech Spectrum Coalition, CTIA The Wireless Association, Competitive Carriers Association, Verizon, T-Mobile, Public Knowledge, the Consumer Technology Association and the Information Technology Industry Council.
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