Spectrum Access Remains Big CE Issue; Net Neutrality Not So Much

Getting access to additional spectrum is the consumer electronics industry’s 2nd-highest priority, behind solving the federal deficit and economic issues, CEA President Gary Shapiro said in a meeting with reporters Tuesday. He said there’s bipartisan support for freeing up spectrum, and suggested that ultimately broadcasters might even be in favor.

There “is enough spectrum to go around” if the government acts quickly, Shapiro said. Asked which of the spectrum proposals CEA supports most, he said they're “all very good.” The best solution would be one that gets spectrum to auction most quickly, and which preserves “a slice” of spectrum for unlicensed use, Shapiro said: “Both licensed and unlicensed are very important."

Broadcasters “are pretending they don’t like” the possibility that they will get money for access to some of their spectrum, Shapiro said: “They don’t own the spectrum they sit on.” But he said broadcasters are “in a great position because they're squatting on a lot of spectrum they're not using” and because their lobbying power assures they'll get compensated for freeing it up. An NAB spokesman declined to comment on Shapiro’s remarks.

CEA is less interested in the network neutrality issue, partially because it has seen “no real problems yet” in that area, Shapiro said. Shapiro said “a lot” of net neutrality problems “would go away if there was true competition in broadband."

The growing importance of government regulation to CEA members convinced it to expand the policy emphasis of CES, Shapiro said. He said his members were much less concerned about government 20 years ago, when their main interest was simply avoiding new rules. Now many of them are adding government relations staff and leaning more on CEA to represent them on policy issues, he said.

As a result, CES will feature two federal cabinet members, four of the five FCC commissioners, including a one-on-one session with Chairman Julius Genachowski, several members of Congress, federal Chief Technology Officer Aneesh Chopra and U.S. Intellectual Property Enforcement Coordinator Victoria Espinel, among others. Verizon CEO Ivan Seidenberg will give the opening keynote, and there will be sessions on network neutrality and broadband deployment, the FCC regulatory agenda, privacy and identity management, Internet safety and several “green” issues.