Groups Urge Congress to Extend 2.5 GHz Tribal Window Until February

Public Knowledge, the National Hispanic Media Coalition and New America’s Open Technology Institute were among more than a dozen groups urging Congress to extend the 2.5 GHz tribal priority application window until Feb. 1, citing the “significant impact the COVID-19 crisis has had on American Indian Tribes.” Chairman Ajit Pai told lawmakers in June the commission is watching the window with an eye on extending it past the Aug. 3 end date (see 2006300084). The groups wrote House Commerce Committee Chairman Frank Pallone, D-N.J., and ranking member Greg Walden, R-Ore., before a Wednesday hearing on the pandemic’s impact on tribes. Those communities “have faced significant hurdles to finishing their applications on time due to the COVID-19 crisis,” the groups said. They noted “the vast majority of application workshops were canceled, as were other forms of in-person outreach.” Surveys “of tribal lands to confirm maps have been difficult to complete, and requests for waivers based on survey data are time consuming due to the impacts of COVID-19,” the groups said. “Stay-at-home orders have delayed tribal decision making” and “an extension will not impact timely filers, nor the 2.5 GHz auction. All these obstacles are further aggravated by the lack of broadband access, basic telephone service, or reliable electric power on many tribal lands.”