FCC Reluctantly Initiates T-Band Reallocation Process; Will Congress Intervene?

Newton's first law of motion states that "[a]n object at rest stays at rest and an object in motion stays in motion with the same speed and in the same direction unless acted upon by an unbalanced force."

The mandate set forth in the "Middle Class Tax Relief and Job Creation Act of 2012" that the FCC reallocate and auction the T-band? An object in motion. Congressional action to prevent that from happening? A much-needed unbalanced force.

Whatever motivated adoption of the T-band auction mandate eight years ago is of little concern today. What matters in 2020 is that first responders in a number of large metropolitan areas, including New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Philadelphia, and Boston, depend upon the T-band (470-512 MHz) for mission-critical communications.

Also significant: the U.S. General Accountability Office (GAO) reports that, in many of these locations, there may not be alternative spectrum available to which first responders might relocate. And multiple agencies, including the FCC and the National Public Safety Telecommunications Council, have concluded that relocation costs, which could be as high as $6 billion, likely would far outweigh auction revenues.

That is why FCC Chairman Ajit Pai, when he recently renewed his call for federal legislation to repeal the T-band auction mandate, labeled it a "bad idea." Democratic Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel said the same, "any way you cut it."

Nevertheless, the Commission's hands are tied, and so on July 6 it adopted a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) in order to initiate the process with sufficient time to meet the statutory deadline of February 22, 2021.

As the NPRM hopefully notes, however, "[b]ipartisan Congressional opposition ... has increased" and "[m]ultiple bills have been introduced that would repeal the T-Band Mandate."

One such piece of proposed legislation, the "Don't Break Up the T-Band Act of 2019" (H.R. 451), was approved by the House Energy & Commerce Committee earlier this week.

A companion bill (S.2748) was introduced in the Senate late last year.

The T-band auction mandate is a threat to public safety and a waste of limited agency resources. It is time for Congress to apply an equal and opposite force to stop its forward motion.