Mobile Now Act Introduced in Senate

Senate Commerce Committee Chairman John Thune (R-SD) and Ranking Member Bill Nelson (D-FL) have introduced the MOBILE NOW (Making Opportunities for Broadband Investment and Limiting Excessive and Needless Obstacles to Wireless) Act. The legislation is meant to light a fire under next-generation 5G wireless gigabit broadband service and directs various federal agencies to evaluate spectrum bands for 5G, including high-band millimeter wave frequencies.

Among the bill highlights are:
1) making a statutory mandate the President's 2010 executive order that the government make 500 MHz of federal spectrum available for private use by 2020;
2) speeding up the placement of wireless structures on federal property;
3) assessing spectrum in the 3 GHz and millimeter wave bands--mostly in the millimeter wave bands--for the feasibility of authorizing licensed or unlicensed broadband services, and if feasible which is best suited;
4) encouraging "dig once" policies that place broadband conduit when below-ground projects like highway constructions are undertaken;
5) creating a central online inventory of federal government assets available for private-sector broadband deployment;
6) requiring the Commerce Department to issue a report within 18 months on what other legislative or regulatory levers could be moved to push federal entities to relinquish or share spectrum; and
7) allow spectrum relocation fund balances to be transferred to agencies for transition efforts immediately after an auction rather than after actual receipt of the funds.