CCA Endorses Spectrum Auction Reauthorization Act

Competitive Carriers Association CEO Tim Donovan endorsed the House Commerce Committee-approved Spectrum Auction Reauthorization Act (HR-3565) Wednesday in a letter to bill lead sponsors panel Chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Wash., and ranking member Frank Pallone, D-N.J. The measure, which House Commerce advanced Wednesday on a 55-0 vote (see 2305240069), would renew the FCC’s auction authority through Sept. 30, 2026. It proposes to allocate up to $14.8 billion in future auction proceeds for next-generation 911 tech upgrades and up to $3.08 billion to fully fund the FCC's Secure and Trusted Communications Networks Reimbursement Program. “Each of these actions are vital to U.S. competitiveness and national security,” Donovan wrote Rodgers and Pallone. “The lack of spectrum auction authority for the FCC and a strong spectrum pipeline clearly harms CCA members and the customers they serve. Several CCA members are also extremely impacted by the lack of full funding needed” to reimburse providers participating in the rip and replace program. “Beyond the Congressionally-created national security mandate to participate in” rip and replace, “impacted carriers (and the customers and roaming consumers their networks serve) are in imminent jeopardy of network failures and face hard decisions to ‘rip’ but not ‘replace’ due to extreme funding constraints,” Donovan said: The FCC’s upcoming July 15 “deadline to submit a reimbursement claim, triggering the one-year statutory completion timeframe, the continuity of reliable wireless, including emergency services, is at stake in many parts of rural America.”