Transcripts For CSPAN3 Hearing Focuses On Wireless Technology And Spectrum Policy 20170306

Communications industry representatives as they talk about Wireless Technology and spectrum policy, including the federal communication commissions recent spectrum options and innovation and the future security of communications and wireless devices and applications. Good morning. On behalf of my friend senator shotts, and i, im glad to convene the first hearing of subcommittee on communications technology, innovation and the internet, with 115th congress. So welcome to you all. As we all know, in todays connected world, the demand for spectrum increases with every new technology. Spectrum is the life blood of this connectivity, improving lives of people around the globe. Our discussion of spectrum policy today comes on the heels of this committees approval of the mobile now app. Under chairman thunes leadership, we have taken a significant bipartisan step toward freeing up spectrum with the next generation. And people should silence their devices, by the way. Right on key, thank you, senator. For the next generation Wireless Services, with the approval of this legislation. I hope to see Senate Passage of the bill in the near future. Our discussion of spectrum policy should continue with rapid growth in the use of mobile devices. And the internet of things demand for spectrum will only increase. Spectrum is giving Rural America the tools and resources it needs. Applications that utilize mobile broadband provide the means to deliver Quality Health care in the most remote corners of our states and transmit Real Time Data for improved Crop Production on our farms. Satellite services are providing television, broadband and earth observation for a variety of applications. Next gen tv has the potential to deliver Better Emergency Services and ultimately save lives. This is particularly important to states like mississippi, that can be situated in the paths of hurricanes, tornadoes and other natural disasters. Unlicensed spectrum offers although innovation demands more efficient spectrum use, innovation will also be what solves the problem of limited spectrum. Were here today to talk about the value of spectrum to the economy. Were here to talk about what we have learned from the fccs recent spectrum options and how unlicensed spectrum is a vital piece to the puzzle. I also hope our discussion will encourage a focus on the future of spectrum policy and set the stage for this committee to look at ways to address spectrum demand. I would like to welcome all of our witnesses, and i will introduce them in a moment. And after we have turned for an Opening Statement to our colleague mr. Shotts. Thank you, mr. Chairman, for convening this hearing and to the witnesses for being here today. Spectrum is the invisible infrastructure that has become the on ramp to access the internet. Thanks to mobile and Wireless Technologies, people can read the news, transfer money, watch shows, video chat with a doctor, all from their mobile device. In a short time, these technologies transformed our lives. With new 5g Wireless Network and the internet of things, demand for spectrum will continue to grow. The value of that spectrum delivers to the economy is hard to overstate. It generates new investments, facilitates innovation, supports job growth across a range of industries, and advancements in mobile and wireless clearly benefit consumers and most industry sectors, but revolutionized engagement in politics, transformed news and enhanced Public Safety. Though the focus is on the economic benefits of commercial spectrum, it is vital to point out that the federal government also has critical spectrum knees for security, transportation, weather forecasting and a wide range of other government services. We must continue to work with the agencies to ensure they have the spectrum resources they need now and in the future. We should also build open the successes of the spectrum relocation fund, to make it more attractive for agencies to vacate or share bans with more commercial users where that is possible. Since we cant create more spectrum, we need to be more creative in how we manage competing spectrum needs. Im confident that industry will find innovative ways to make better use of the bans they have, but we need to find a balance between the competing public and private sector needs for more terrestrial and satellite capacity and the need forre adequate spectrum availab for licensed and unlicensed uses. Mobile now includes a bill that senator moran and i introduced that would require the government to develop a National Plan for unlicensed spectrum. A lot of attention focuses on how to make new frequencies available for the license side, we also near a clear plan to support continued innovation in the shared license bans. They have become an affordable way for pep ople to get online. I trust the committee will continue to work with the agencies and stake holders to make more bans available to khm commercial users over the coming weeks and months. We need to make sure people from all walks of life across the country have access to wireless broadband services. I know the chairman and many of our colleagues on the committee share this point of view. To pursue new opportunities, every stake holder man an effective partner this conversation, a fully staffed fcc led by the chairman and its commissioners is critical to accomplishing thinks goals. Im appalled the white house withdrew. They should defer to congressional leaders on both sides of the aisle for nominees for the commissions as has been the norm. She has been a leader on spectrum policy and strong advocate for consumers. I hope the house will renominate herself. Thank you for initiating this important discussion. I look forward to the witnesss testimony. Thank you very much, senator shotts. We have a distinguished panel that we are looking forward to hearing from at this point. Our witnesses include from left to right, mr. Scott bergman, Vice President of Regulatory Affairs cti wireless association. Mr. Roger etner, founder and lead office, recon analytics. Mr. Dave hiner, Vice President and Deputy Council microsoft corporation. Mr. La plaidny, president and ceo and mr. Tom stroops. Now, we have a lot of people are prepared, come Long Distances and put a lot of thought into this hearing. We have votes at the top of the hour. We want to be respectful of the time and preparation of our witnesses. We will proceed with the testimony. And members will simply proceed in and out during the two votes i think which will begin at the top of the hour. Well be able to proceed in that fashion without having to reset and take the valuable time of these participants. Well begin to my left, and mr. Bergman, youre recognized for five minutes for an Opening Statement. Good morning. Open behalf of ctia, thank you for the opportunity to speak about the significant economic contributions of the u. S. Wireless industry. The power of wireless is transforring how we live and work in every Community Across the country and ever sector of the economy. Were about to have a breakthrough of 5g. It will add trillions of dollars to our economy and three million new jobs. To deliver than promise, the Wireless Industry needs this committees continued leadership to deliver more spectrum and modernize policies. The wireless crew today is a powerful contributor to the u. S. Economy. We have invested over 300 billion and are responsible for more than 4. 6 million jobs. Consumers and businesses continue to adopt mobile broadband with data traffic increasing more that be 25 times since 2010 and expect fod increase another five times by 2021. Americas Wireless Industry stands ready to invest another 275 billion to give networks that will be faster, more responsive and connect more to more devices. It will unleash innovation and growth in industries across our economy, from energy, health care, pup safety. Fiveg will unlook trillions of dollars of benefits and help save thousands of lives. The u. S. Has been a Global Leader, and were poised to leave in 5g. Spectrum is available, stream lighting sighting and investing. The keys to u. S. Leadership sound spectrum and infrastructure policies. License spectrum in particular is a knee is a powerful creator of Economic Growth and jobs. They have taken bipartisan steps to make people trump available for wireless. Now more work remains. We must ensure timely access to new peck trump made available through the incentive auction. It raised 19. 6 billion, making it the second largest fcc auction ever. We support a seemless repacking process and are working to achieve the 39monthscandal so fg is not delayed. The decision to dedicate high band spectrum was also critical. Third, we appreciate this committees continued attention to the spectrum pipeline. It takes on average 13 years to reallocate spectrum for wireless use. Policymakers should continue to review federal use of spem truck and continue ways to inivize agencies. Finally, we must modern id our policies. Current federal, state, local setting practices were designed to loan small cells. They will be deployed by the hundreds of thousands. We can remove barriers to deployment by addressing burdensome local permitting, insure i insuring our his storic preservation and directing agencies to speed deployment on federal lands and properties. With a continued focus on spectrum and infrastructure, well be able to ensure that wireless providers it continue to invest, create jobs and leit the world in 5g. Thank you, and i look forward to your questions. Thank you very much. And at this point Ranking Member of the full committee has a unanimous consent request. To insert my comments into the record on this extremely important subject and thank you, mr. Chairman, and ravging member of the subcommittee for holding this hearing. Without objection, the remotes will be assorted at the right place. Thank, senator. Our next witness is mr. Roger etper. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to testify this morning. My name is roger etner, a research and consulting. Im here to highlight the importance of federal government continuing to free up additional spectrum to support 5d and netwo networks. First, in 2015, americans spent 2. 9 trillion minutes talking on their mobile phones. Tent u. S. Wireless Network Operators have constructed over 307,000 cell sites, from 20 to 2015, u. S. Network operators spend 8 billion to buy spectrum and invested 428. Competition in the u. S. Mobile industry is intense. Two weeks ago nks verizon released their plan. Competitors matched and tried to beat the offer. Just today, at t launched a new pricing plan. 97. 9 of americans can choose from three Network Based platers and 93. 4 can choose from at four jobs . The mobile industry directly and indirectly supports 7 million jobs in the United States. These jobs are a function of the amount of investment the companies spend to build the networks, operate the networks, advertise the networks and services and otherwise work with a wide variety of venders and others to create and sustain what we know as the American Mobile Consumer Experience and the u. S. Wireless industry. As a result, the mobile industry contributed 194. 8 billion in gdp in 2014. The app and mobile content market is a 36 billion industry, who is very existence is dependent on the ebik ewe us to broad band American Companies have built. Uber, lift and air b b would be unthinkable without the data mobile network give them and their customers. Together these three companies alone are valued at 98 billion. To say that the u. S. Mobile industry is one of the driving factors to create new jobs and businesses in the Digital Economy is an understatement, but there is no guarantee the industry will be able to support the kind of exponential demand for mobile networks that it is expected to need. From 2008 to 2015, mobile data usage increased 643 fold and growth is expected to continue unabated. And today the internet of things is the newest frontier for wireless and it has implications for improvements in manufacturing, health care, transportations. There is not a sector in our u. S. Economy that wont be improved by access to fast, mobile broad band networks. Deploying new spectrum is the most effective and quickest way to provide more capacity ahead of the tsunami of demand and ensure the industry can continue to drive Economic Growth and new job creation. Consider every ten megaherts creates 3. 1 billion in gdp and 100 thousands new jobs. The mobile now act is a great next step in the journey to clear more spectrum, but as demand for mobile services is increasing, the need for spectrum is increasing as well. My suggestions for policymakers are few but specific. First, licenses should be allocated in larger channel sizes. 5g deployments need at least 20 by 20 megaherts channels. Ideally in low, medium and high frequencies. Second, 5g deployments for which providers have exclusive use. Third is to help streamline the approval process for new and existing thank you again for the opportunity to testify at this important hearing. I look forward to answering your questions. Thank you very much. Mr. Heiner, your recognized. Chairman wicker, rairnging members and members of the Sub Committee, thank you for inviting me to testify. My name is david heiner and i am microsofts Vice President of Regulatory Affairs. Im pleased to have the opportunity to speak with you today about the critical importance of unlicensed spectrum to the u. S. Economy. We all use unlicensed spectrum everyday without giving it much thought. If you open unlock your car with a fee fob or opened your garage door with a remote this morning, if you make a hand free call in your car, youre using unlicensed spectrum. If you have a fitness tracker, youre connecting to your phone with unlicensed spectrum. And of course, we all use wify everyday. Pcs, laptops, tablets, mobile phones, game consoles, smart tvs, thermostats, web cams, Lighting Systems and countless other devices connect to the internet and one another with unlicensed wifi spectrum. This Success Story is no accident. Congress and the fcc had great foresight decades ago in opening up spectrum to unlicensed use. Today, unlicensed use spectrum is powering the nations economy. The nations internet economy. We can see it all around us. For example, most u. S. Homes have a wifi connection. Away from home, there are 94 million public wifi hot spots around the world and that is projected to grow to more than 500 million by 2021. People want wifi wherever they go. And they want it for all of their many devices. As of 2015, the industry had shipped more than 10 billion wifi enabled devices. All of this means, of course, that the unlicensed spectrum is very heavily utilized. In fact, according to a report from cisco, in the United States, 55 of total internet traffic is carried over a wifi network. By comparison, just 3. 4 of internet traffic is carried by licensed mobile networks. This flood of traffic has translated into enormous Economic Growth. As detailed in my written testimony, a recent study estimated that by this year unlicensed spectrum would contribute nearly 50 billion to the gpd and 547 billion in economic surplus annually. The public availability of unlicensed spectrum is important to microsoft because our customers depend on connectivity to reach our services. Our Business Strategy is mobile first, cloud first. And what that means is enabling customers to use any connected device to Access Internet Services Running in massive data centers, which we call the cloud. Our products like windows and office used to be stand alone programs but no more. Today they are always connected, enabling new features and being continuously updated with security and other improvements. In recent years, we developed a new platform called asher to enable anyone to build and deploy cloud services, accessible via the internet. Cloud computing is taking off because it offers tremendous economic efficiencies. But the cloud is wholly dependent on connectivity and the unlicensed bands are the workhorse that enable it. For example, our till lem tri shows that 98 of windows 10 devices are connected to wifi and nearly half of all the data that comes on to and off those devices flows over the wifi connection. Of course, unlicensed spectrum is more than just wifi. The bluetooth connections that were all familiar with operate in unlicensed spectrum as well. The internet of things depends on unlicensed spectrum and tv white space is technology, which carries the promise of bringing broad band to Rural Communities depends upon unlicensed as well. The unlicensed bands have spurred these and so many other innovations because they provide immediate access to shared spectrum resources with low barriers to industry and light regulation. In closing, i would offer two suggestions to promote optimal use of spectrum. First, congress should advance a balanced spectrum policy that includes both licensed and unlicensed spectrum as is done in the mobile now act which we support. Second, through this act and others, policymakers should look for additional opportunities in the low, mid and High Frequency unlicensed bands to help satisfy ever growing demand. Thank you again for the opportunity to testify. At microsoft, we look forward to working with you to promote optimal spectrum policy. Thank you. Thank you very much. Good morning, chairman, Ranking Members and members of the Sub Committee. My name is pat la platny and im the president and ceo of ray con media. I oversee 60 broadcast televisions stretching from honolulu. Im testifying today on behalf of the National Association of broadcasters and its 1,300 full powered television stations that serve communities across the country with free, locally focussed programming. I appreciate you inviting me to speak about the upcoming voluntary upgrade that broadcasters across the country and other parts of the world are making to the next Generation Television standard atsc 3. 0. In a world where broad band access is on par to water. The importance of local broadcasting and the trusted News Coverage it affords is paramount. Through next gen tv, broadcasters will deliver all of this with most watched entertainment, programming and sports to your constituents in new and exciting ways. What is next gen tv, its a crystal clear, high deaf picture that enhances the broadcast listening and viewing experience. It is more effective emergency capabilities that will save more lives. Next gen tv intergrates the best of broadcast and broad band to offer interactive content. Next gen tv enables access to broadcast television through smart phones and tablets, ensuring that our local stations content is available virtually anywhere, any time and through any platform that viewers desire. Finally, next gen tv is spectrally efficient. It offers more channels for free. No expensive cable bill or data plan is required. Simply put, next gen tv will enhance the ability of low skal broadcasters to impact the communities we serve. The tragic tornado in mississippi and the hurricanes in the Puna District on the big island of hawaii provide ample evidence that next gen tv will provide. More and Better Emergency Services including enhanced alerting, interactive menus with hyper local detail and the potential for mobile access had cellular signals failed. A broad koelation including public and commercial broadcasters, consumer manufactures and Public Safety advocates to allow stations to conduct voluntary Market Driven transition to the new next gen tv standard. After several months the fcc unanimously approved last week. Broadcasters stand willing and ready to make the necessary investments in our fraeg to enable an upgrade to next gen tv. We need the fcc to quickly finalize these rules in order to move ta forward. We applaud the fcc for itsz work to date. I want to highlight one issue currently before congress that poses difficulties. Successful completion of the broadcast incentive auction. As the auction winds its way to completion, one thing is certain, the broadcast industry will end up with less spectrum. The ability of those nonparticipating systems to go into a smaller broadcast band without viewer disruption is critical. I want to thank the committee leadership, senators and cosponsors for the work on draft legislation that ensures broadcasters will have adequate time and resources to recessfully repack following the close of the incentive auction. Your legislation will make certain that no consumer will lose access to the broadcast service as a result of the repack. It is just this certainty that an investment in next gen tv requires. Thank you and i look forward to answering your questions. And thank you very much. Mr. Stroop, youre recognized. Chairman, wicker, Ranking Member shots and members of the Sub Committee, i would like to thank you for the opportunity to appear before you today. Im tom stroop, president of the satellite industry association. Since its creation over 20 years ago, sia has been the unified voice of the u. S. Industry on policy, regulatory and legislative issuings affecting the satellite business. Like the other Industries Represented on the panel today, the satellite industry supports hundreds of thousands of jobs and generates billions of dollars in revenue. Beyond strictly financial metrics, however, i would encourage the Sub Committee to consider that our very way of life depends on the benefits we receive from satellitebased services and applications. Satellites providing truly ubiquitous coverage earth observation, communications and position, navigation and Timing Services have transformed how we communicate, map, navigate and see our world, how we produce food and energy, conduct banking, predict weather, perform disaster, relief, perform National Security and so much more. Of course, delivering these Diverse Services to a broad range of customers is only possible because of our ability to access spectrum. Satellites have long played a central role in distributing virtually all Television Content to american viewing audiences. In particular, live events like breaking news and sports depend on the point to multipoint coverage and High Service Quality that satellites provide. Communication satellites also provide connectivity to business networks, mobile platforms like commercial aircraft and merry thyme vessels as well as direct to household consumers. Satellite broad band, a high quality and Cost Effective solution is playing an increasingly important part in addressing the Digital Divide across the United States, including in the most rural and remote areas of country where it remains uneconomical for terrestrial services to build. Today, the commercial satellite industry has approximately 2 million customers nationwide enjoying high quality Broad Band Services no matter where they are located. And, with the addition of multiple high throughput, high speed broad band satellites this year, we expect the prevalence of Broad Band Services by satellite to increase rapidly. It is also extremely important to mention the critical nature that satellites provide to our safety and National Security. Satellites are often the only means of communicating after a natural or other disaster. Furthermore, they enable our military to project power in the air, on land and at sea. To site just one example, Satellite Communications enable agile connectivity and Efficient Mission control for remotely piloted aircraft carrying out Critical Missions abroad. Let me turn to innovation and growth. Even as demand for spectrum has increased the satellite industry has developed ways to use this limited Natural Resource more efficiently. High throughput satellites, for example, rely on frequency reuse and spot Beam Technology to produce increased output factors more than 20 times that of traditional satellites. Meeting the fcc benchmark broad band speeds. They have seen similar increases in the capacity of the systems. Highly anticipated advancement in the industry, hundreds of new high throughput nongeo stationary satellites will soon provide high speed capacity. Existing high throughput satellites already support the delivery of three and 4g services and in the future satellite fleets will be a part of the System Architecture that delivers new 5gi. O. T. And connected transportation to consumers. Advances in commercial remote satellite are occurring at a rapid pace. S. I. A. Member companies are launching satellites to view and sense the earth across multiple spectral bands at unparalleled spatial resolutions and with unprecedented Global Coverage and revisit rates. Data from the u. S. Remote sensing operators are building new markets based on geo spatial data from agriculture to Business Intelligence to weather prediction. Of course, all the breakthroughs weve seen because of satellite technologies should not be taken for granted. They depend upon our industrys ability to access spectrum. In order for our industry to sustain and meet the growing demand for satellite services, we encourage regulators to continue to allocate sufficient spectrum for satellite use. Together, we have an opportunity to address the digital guide, meet the growing needs of u. S. Consumers, ensure our countrys safety and National Security and do so in a manner that utilizes spectrum most efficiently. I appreciate the opportunity to appear before you and im happy to answer any questions. Thank you, mr. Stroop. Thank you, all u for your excellent testimony and for helping us by saying at the time. I explained early enough and gone over this also with consultation with senator shots, i will now turn the gavel over to senator gardener and, i will go vote and immediately come back. At this point, i think its probably best to recognize senator shots for a question and then well proceed along the list thats been prepared for us by our staff. Thank you, chairman wicker. My first question is for mr. Heiner, the use of wireless devices in the unlicensed bands is so popular that the Wifi Alliance predicts we will need another 500 gig herts of spectrum and unlicensed bands to accommodate demands by 2025. Im going to ask you three questions just in the interest of time so you can knock them all out in a row. Which bands are the most important for unlicensed spectrum today . What are the industrys plans to identify more bands for unlicensed spectrum . And then do Tech Companies generally agree or differ greatly in terms of a strategy for the unlicensed bands . Thank you for those questions, senator shots. Ill answer the first two sort of together. We very much need to find and sort of utilize as efficiently as possible additional unlicensed spectrum in the low, mid and high frequencies. At the low end, around the 600 megaherts after the incentive auction, we have the possibility of really investing very heavily in t. D. White spaces technology. Thats technology that allows signals to travel quite a Long Distance, 4, 5, miles. Think of fm radio, 88 to 108 on the dial. Fm station can cover the whole city. 600 megahurts not far off from that. Very low power were able to serve an entire community. We have an example of this coming up in southern virginia as a test pilot. At the mid frequencies, thats where most wifi is today 2. 4 and 5 gigahertz. Thats very good spectrum for within a home, it can penetrate a couple walls. As you know, your signal falls off outside the home. We would like more contiguous spectrum next to what we already have to build out more channels. Then at the high end, at the millimeter waves, the recent spectrum frontiers proceeding at the fcc has opened up new spectrum which were very enthused about. This spectrum can carry very heavy throughput but only for short distances. Were talking about line of sight. Great applications for that technology to be able, for example, to have your pc connect to a monitor with no cables, to stream video within the home, for augmented reality scenarios where youre wearing a headset and devices in the room are actually communicating with the headset, via these high millimeter waves. We very much want to see it in all three bands. Mr. Heiner, in the interest of time, ill take the last question for the record so i can get to my second and final question. And this is for mr. Bergman and mr. La platny, we all want Faster Internet Service and Better Wireless Service coverage that will result from the current incentive auction but at the same time a lot of us are concerned that consumers would lose access to their local broadcast news if channels are forced off the air in the repacking process. So the question for mr. Bergman and mr. La latny, isnt there a way to balance these concerns and make sure that Member Companies can deploy quickly ach the auction while also protecting our constituents access to local news. Mr. Bergman first. Thank you, senator. So were absolutely committed to smooth transition process. We do believe its important to have timely access to that spectrum. We have confidence that the fcc will be able to stick to its 39 1 2 month 39month schedule. The faster we get access to those bands, the faster we can invest, create jobs and build out our 5g spectrum. Were very confident well be able to work collaboratively to get that done. Thank you very much. Mr. La platny . There we go. Thank you, senator shots, again for your question. And thank you for your leadership on a bill to help address these issues. We believe currently with the information we have that both the time and the Financial Resources are goibl to be inaud kwaut based on current information. Speaking for ray con. We got our repack letter about a month ago and we will have 22 of our stations that will need to be repacked in markets from west palm beach, florida, to missouri, indiana and mississippi. Its a complicated process. For instance, a couple of our markets will have to move from channel 12 to channel 8 and that could involve it will involve putting a new antenna thats going to weigh potentially thousands of pounds more on an existing tower. Theres all kinds of issues surrounding that. Weve begun engineering studies already in a number of these markets, so were concerned about the time line. Were concerned about the amount of money, but we will work collaboratively and work as quickly as we can to move through the repack to be as efficient and effective as we can in working on this. I would just like to indulge the chairman if i could have his indulgence for a minute. Mr. Bergman, can we have your commitment, yes or no, to working out a solution that accommodates these very serious concerns . Were absolutely committed to working with you, with our partners in the broadcast industry. 39 months is an eternity in the Wireless Industry. As you can imagine, after spending 20 billion to purchase something thats essentially the value of Hilton Hotels or jetblue two times over, we want to put that spectrum to good use. Were absolutely work collaboratively with you all to make that happen. Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you to all of you. I love that the broadcasters are having issues with the microphones. I think we all know how important this topic is. We have a very active broad band caucus and in fact, senator cap doe and i led a letter that was signed by 48 senators urging the president to include broad band in any kind of infrastructure package. Weve also been working on the dig once legislation with senator gardener and senator danes to make easier to deploy broad band, but i specifically wanted to focus on rural issues. First, mr. Berg mman, part of t mobile now act that i did with senator fisher would require the fcc to explore ways to provide incentives for wireless carriers to use unlicense spectrum. Senator klobuchar, thank you for the work that you and senator fisher have done on the rural spectrum accessibility act. We think thats a creative tool that can help. We recognize that our members compete to expand their service maps. They want to serve the entire country. They took l. T. E. Coverage from zero to over 99 in seven years, but we recognize that rural areas have particular challenges, fewer people, geography and toepography. The legislation that you worked on is a big part of that. Getting access that that 600 megahert spectrum will be important, too. Making sure we have that smooth and timely process to get that spectrum put to use is really important. Okay. Thank you. Mr. Stroop, cochair of the 911 caucus and senator nelson and i actually have announced new legislation that generation 911 act of 2017 to provide more federal funding through the existing 911 grant program. As you know, everything changed since 911. People can have the ability for firefighters to get blueprints of buildings and for people to get stranded in the woods of minnesota that we could use location accuracy to find them. Can you explain how a satellite backup can improve the resiliency of next gen 911 systems . Certainly. The at slight Networks Today have ubiquitous coverage. Whether its in a time of emergency or when people are lost. So, it is the ubiquitous nature of the coverage that allows them to be able to enhance these services that are provided by terrestrial providers. Thank you. Then finally, mr. La platny, ensuring our Communications Networks can effectively support Public Safety, includes natural disasters and emergency events like we have flooding in north dakota and minnesota. And these kinds of things can destroy communications infrastructure. How can Public Safety be enhanced by a next generation tv standard . So the next Gen Television standard allows for better targeted alerts and emergencies, whether its flooding or tornadoes or hurricanes. It also has the capability to awake dormant televisions . I couldnt help but let that go. What does that mean . Youre all over me today, senator. So if youre asleep at 3 00 a. M. And theres a tornado baring down on you. This technology has the capability to wake your phone or television up and say, youre in the path of a storm. Please take cover. Wow. Okay. I would like turn it on through your control. Turn it on, awake it. Awaken it. So this idea with the new standards with 911 and what were working on here could help to make that more standard across the country . Absolutely. Okay. Thank you very much. Thank you, all. Were excited about the possibilities on a bipartisan basis to move forward on broad band and enhanced 911 services. Senator cortez masto. Thank you. Thank you, mr. Chair. Gentlemen, thank you for joining. As a new member, im excited to be working with you on this issue. First of all, let me say thank you for the bipartisan willingness to Work Together. The broadcasters from nevada and i represent the great state of nevada had the same concerns that you just brought out today. And its nice to hear mr. Bergman, youre willing to work with them. Thats something i will be paying attention to. And then my colleague talked about rural areas. Nevada, challenge for us in nevada is getting access to wireless broad band in so many needs where we can bring tell medicine, we can bring education, Behavioral Services through broad band wireless to those areas. And thank you for your comments. Im curious if theres any other areas where you can see that we should be looking toward to incentivize and bring Additional Services through wireless, through spectrum that we should be looking at to those rural areas. I know you addressed it with access to 600 megahertz. Was there anything else we should be looking to do to bring enhanced services to rural areas . Thank you. Reaching rural areas does require creativity. And as i mentioned, the Wireless Industry invested 32 billion last year to try to build out and improve its networks. Just to assure you we continue to expand that coverage footprint, just over the last two years we added 800,000 road miles to our coverage and over 500,000 citizen. We continue to make that a priority. Youre right. We have to be creative. In addition to creating incentives to share spectrum and that happens today in the marketplace, verizon has a very successful lte in Rural America program where it shares spectrum with smaller areas that share spectrum. Having a robust Mobility Fund is important. So we commend the fcc for adopting a Mobility Fund at its last open meeting and look forward to that implementation. I would say particularly in western states, siting on federal lands is a real opportunity where today it can take two to four years to site on federal lands. If we could speed that up, you reduce the costs, you make it easier to get out there and serve citizens who might be near areas with lots of federal land. So those are just a couple ideas. Thats very helpful. Thank you very much. Thank you very much senator cortez masto. And you know, i kind of felt like i would get a turn if we proceeded in this fashion. Let me start with you, mr. Heiner. Whats the take away in terms of federal policy coming out of this committee with regard to the unlicensed spectrum . Do we need to leave it like it is . What do we need to do . What decisions do we need to make from a legislative standpoint or from a standpoint of giving advice to our regulatory friends . Well, a couple of points. I was mentioning a minute ago so i wont repeat it at length now, but we do need to encourage the fcc to enable unlicensed spectrum in the low bands, the mid bands and the high bands. There are a couple of fcc proceedings that are open and we look forward to their conclusion in the incentive auction, for instance, which was a success in that 70 megahertz was made available for licensed use and 14 megahertz for unlicensed use. We just need to finalize that and get the repacking of the broadcast stations done and try to do that in such a way that there are new unlicensed channels open that are open in every part of the country. Including urban areas. So that the Device Manufacturers for tv white spaces devices will know if they sell their device it can be purchased and used any place. There are some open proceedings also relating to 2. 4 gig and 5 gig and millimeter bands. So we need to see all of them sort of concluded in ways that encourage the unlicensed use. The only other point i would make is you know, its important that ewith all Work Together in the unlicensed space. To prevent interference to other users of the same frequencies. Its important that regulation not be so onerous that the effect of it is to actually block people from using the unlicensed spectrum. So we just need to find the right balance there. Okay. I may ask other members of the panel if they would like to weigh in on that issue, but first let me talk about another aspect of your testimony, and that is the data centers that constitute the cloud. Where are these data centers located . I understand a lot of them are right outside town here. And how safe are they . How safe is their infrastructure . And then ill ask other members of the panel to volunteer if i would like to weigh in on either of these matters . Well, thank you for that question. You know its not up in the air somewhere, is it . Yeah. Its a big old building. What happens is people used to go to the white board and say were going to connect to a server someplace and they would draw the image of the cloud and it became thats the cloud. The data centers are on the ground. This could be front page news tomorrow. They are massive, massive buildings with just racks and racks and racks of servers. You know, we have one in Washington State on the Columbia River and the idea is to get hydro electric power which is cheap and efficient. But we have about 100 data centers around the world. We try to have them close to spread around the world to row deuce latentsy, so that we have a very fast connection to customers wherever they are. These are highly, highly secure facilities. People sometimes worry about gee, if my data is in these facilities, is it safer if i keep the data at home . Our point of view is really that its sort of like, is your money safe in a bank or is it safer under the mattress . And actually its safer if its professionally managed. And so we put tremendous resources into ensuring the security of those systems. If somebody launches a rocket propelled grenade at my bank, im not going to lose my money. What if they attack the fibers that connect these data centers and also help me out . Where are the bulk of them . You told me where yours are. If you could answer those two well, they are spread around the world. And in terms of the effective attack on any one data center, all the data is replicated and backed up in a professional way to many, many other locations. So that shouldnt be a concern. In terms of where theyre located, it really is all over the world. The leaders in running these data centers are of course, microsoft, amazon, which has Amazon Web Services and google. They all have their own policies and where they site them. Okay. Is there any other member of the panel who would like to talk about either unlicensed spectrum or the data centers that comprise the cloud . Mr. Stroop, were you raising your hand . Actually i was. This is somewhat related to the question relating to the information in the cloud is that one member on the panel whose members provide service above the cloud, that is one of the great advantages in times of emergencies that infrastructure is protected from the kinds of attacks that you mentioned or natural disasters. So while not directly going to the point that you raised in terms of data in the cloud does go to security of the information in the Communications Networks. Yes, sir, mr. Bergman. Chairman wicker, just to the question about providing both licensed and unlicensed spectrum. We believe thats important as well, too. The Wireless Industry relies on unlicensed spectrum and looks to launch new services in unlicensed bands. I would just encourage this committee to continue to focus on the needs for licensed spectrum as well, too, particularly as we look forwards 5g. Were looking for high bands as an initial platform for 5g services. So one of the things we want to make sure is that we have enough high band spectrum in large channels, large contiguous channels. So even after the fcc adopted its spectrum volunteer order last year, there are now 14 gig hertz of spectrum for unlicensed use in the high bands and just under 4 for licensed spectrum in the high bands. So we really want to make sure that we have enough spectrum there to invest, again, the industry is looking to invest 250 billion over the next seven years creating 3 million jobs really enabling us to take that 5g lead. Just encourage you all to prioritize both of those. What if any recommendations do you have to the fcc in this regard . Your own television . We would love it if the fcc would move forward with its further knows it teed up 18 additional gig hertz of high band spectrum to be used for 5g services. We really want to make sure that the fcc prioritize licensed spectrum and make sure we have enough to maintain that leadership as we move from 4g into 5g. All right. Mr. La platny, you emphasized next gen tv in your testimony. What needs to happen at the federal level to help your goals become a reality . Thank you for the question, senator wicker. There is an mprm out there currently. I believe were in a Comment Period and i think the short answer to your question is just continued oversight by this committee. That would be a notice of proposed rule making. Correct. Notice of proposed rule making. Thank you. At the fcc. Were in a Comment Period now. We expect that Comment Period to end sometime during the summer. And it would be our hope that the standard would be adopted sometime during the fall. Have you made recommendations . Have you responded to this notice with suggestions . Yes, sir, i think a number of industry participants have. Anyone else . Okay. Well, mr. Bergman, mr. Industries are leveraging digital platforms for innovation and growth in health care. Its a very exciting area in which were actually helping people lead longer and more meaningful lives. In mississippi there is a great example of this. It provides patients with remote Care Management resulting in cost savings of over 300,000 for only 100 patients. Of course we would like to write this large. Expanded this program could save medicaid 189 million. How do we ensure that theres sufficient spectrum available to continue to fuel this innovation in tell medicine and provide Quality Health care access to all americans regardless of where they live . Thank you, mr. Chairman. Well, we certainly agree with you. M health is one of the most promising applications that 5g looks to bring, whether were talking about remote patient monitoring, chronic disease management, there are tremendous opportunities to shave costs, as you mentioned, but also to improve outcomes. To safe lives and make sure that patients have a better quality of life. So just a couple of things that this committee can do. Again, focussing on making spectrum available in low, mid and high bands, making sure that we have licensed spectrum that enables us to provide those guarantees of performance that reliability and security that we really want to have out of our health applications. And then maybe sometimes overlooked aspect is infrastructure siting, particularly as we look at to build out high band spectrum which will have that incredible capacity five times the responsiveness, ten times the speeds of what we have today. Its important that we have this new 5g infrastructure. Being able to site those small cells quickly and without unnecessary costs or delays is really important. Thank you. Anyone else want to talk about telesnelt. The tv white space is technology could also be very helpful for telemedicine. It has the cape iblt of sending signals over Long Distance bs. In fact, microsoft has a system up and running in bat swan that where circumstances can be difficult, specifically focussed on telemedicine. The doctors in the more urban areas are able to reach out to patients in rural areas. Okay. Now, the administration believes and i support in certainly a general sense the idea that regulations many times though well intended have stifled job creation and that we need Regulatory Reform not only from the standpoint of legislation but also coming out of the administration. So, would each of you five experts give us the benefit of some recommendations, two or three recommendations that the administration that you might send to the administration for Regulatory Reform in the early months of this administration . Mr. Bergman. Thank you, mr. Chairman. So, just a couple of thoughts. Certainly two places where we would appreciate this committees guidance are with respect to the privacy regulations and the open internet regulations that the past fcc adopted. In the case of privacy, where the fcc departed from long standing ftc precedent, in the case of title 2 where public utility regulation was applied to Broad Band Services, both of these areas are places where we believe the committee can help guide the fcc. A third area is as we look forward towards things like the internet of things, making sure we have consistent, National Framework to guide innovation in that space is very important for the future growth of those services. W. Okay. Let me make sure i understand what youre saying with regard to title 2. Its your view that the fcc made a mistake in that regard in recent years and that that should be turned around . Yes, mr. Chairman. Were certainly very encouraged to hear chairman pi talk about reversing that decision and recognizing the competition and the innovation thats happening in the mobile broad band space. All right. Thank you. Thank you, chairman. In my opinion the American People have benefitted tremendously from a light touch regulatory approach to telecom and technology in general and the growth speaks for itself. I think we should return to light touch regulation and make it possible for Companies Across the whole competitive environment to compete with each other. Competition is really the life blood here of the industry and americans have benefitted tremendously from it. I think thats the importance that the same rules apply to everybody the same way no matter how they compete with each other with similar services. So, with regard to returning to light touch, would you agree with mr. Bergman, then, on the title 2 issue . I would. All right. Now members of the public should know that the panel is a panel suggested by both the republican and democratic membership of this committee. This is not a one sided show at all. Would anyone care to take issue with either mr. Bergman or mr. Entner with regard to the title 2 issue . What suggestions do you have back to the broader general question about suggestions for policymakers, the administration, the congress or the regulators with regard to Regulatory Reform . I would just focus on unlicensed spectrum, which is already a Success Story in terms of the very low regulation that those bands entail. That low regulation means that barriers for innovators are incredibly low. Anybody can dream up some device and transmit on the frequencies with no administration. I urge the congress and fcc to maintain that approach which is a proven success and expand the amount of bandwidth to unlicensed spectrum. On the Net Neutrality point, microsoft supports the cores. Would like to see it enshrined. However thats done, the specifics around title 2 is not something thats at all important to us. Mr. La platny, do you have anything to add . Yes, senator wicker. The broadcast industry is highly regulated. And we would love to see the fcc take up local ownership rules. We think theres whether its the newspaper or broadcast ownership or the local role, its time for those roles to be revisited. That would be our suggestion. Mr. Stroop . Yes. First i would like to commend the fcc for many of the modifications they made to the part 25 rules last year working with the industry. However, we would like to see them make some modifications to the restrictions on the industry that were adopted in the spectrum frontiers industry. Of course going to the core of this proceedings, ensuring theres sufficient spectrum made available for the growth of the industry. Another area we would recommend relates to export reform. Fortunately a number of the icar restrictions were removed. Allowing manufacturers of the satellites to compete in the networks on a worldwide basis. Some restrictions which remain and we would request that that be revisited. Thank you very much. Ranking member shots, ive tried my best to stir up a disagreement among these panelists and im having an awful time doing it. So, ill yield to you for a few questions. Thank you, mr. Chairman. If you need disagreement, i think i can provide it for you. My additional questions for mr. Bergman, the u. S. Has been a Global Leader in the development of mobile technology and there has been a lot of anticipation for the implementation of 5g. The Committee Past mobile now in january, which will make additional spectrum available for 5g networks. My question for you, mr. Bergman, is can you put this in a global context in terms of how we are viewed in the highly competitive world of International Technology companies . And why its so important for the United States to lead on 5g. Thank you, senator shots. We are clearly recognized as the worlds leader in 4glte. We invested first, innovated first and thats paid dividends other the last seven years. If you look at the mobile eco system, the two largest operating systems are both based here in the u. S. Stunning 76 of Apps Developers are located here in the u. S. So, we think its paid tremendous dividends in terms of innovation. We believe that 5g has more greater opportunities as we look at the services that have much greater capacity to Impact Industries across the economy and our consumers lives. So, there truly is a global race. I mentioned some of the other countries around the world that are taking steps to make large swaths of spectrum available and to streamline the way that they site that infrastructure and architecture. Its really critical that we do the same here in the u. S. Can you flesh out what the new opportunities are as opposed to the last iteration . Sure. So if we look at health care, you look at the opportunity to have remote patient monitoring or chronic disease management or as you look at the ability to use high band spectrum, we have the ability to have ultra hd, you might have remote surgery and to be able to extend the reach of expert doctors beyond urban senders into rural areas. Similarly in education space, where you might have Virtual Reality applications that allow students in hawaii to in a blink of an eye to be in the center of the roman coliseum. There are tremendous opportunities. And in transportation, in energy as well, too. Where we have the ability to cut traffic times, reduce fatalities, cut emeigss. There are tremendous opportunities. Can you give us a status report. Where are we . Who are our greatest competit competitors . Who is on top of this . Are we already behind . Or just tell me where we are. I think were really poised to lead. The fccs actions to make that high band spectrum available have led to over two dozen trials here in the ugs. Companies have already invested in rnd. So were out ahead of the standards process. One of our Member Companies announced just earlier this week a Pilot Program to offer 5g services in 11 different markets. So i think were very much poised to lead. But it is a race and it will be important that we make the right policies decisions here. Who are we in a race with . Japan, the eu, south korea, china. Thank you. Any one else care to comment on that . Mr. Entner. Thank you, senator. I want to highlight the importance of configuring the spectrum in large channel configurations. Because think of these channels like water pipes. The bigger the pipe the faster the speed. In the United States, spectrum is typically allocated in 5 x 5 or 10 x 10 megahertz channels. Overseas, it is in 20 by 20 very frequently. Inherently of how you can provide for speed is you have now carrier aggregation. You can glue three of these pipes together, three of these channels. And if you glue together three 5 x 5s, gives you 15 megahertz of spectrum as one channel. Or you glue together three 20 x tot 20s thats 60. Inherently, whoever has the 20 x 20s will be four times faster. That is a really important consideration to keep the u. S. Competitive with the rest of the world. And is one of our sort of unique challenges the spectrum currently allocated i think appropriately to National Security and other needs that maybe not every country has quite that obligation and quite that same Public Policy . It is within the existing spectrum, not necessarily about different and new spectrum. Its just like when we have spectrum, how do we divide up that spectrum . Oh, this is within the bands that are allocated . Correct. And so how does is that an fcc decision that has to be made or are these technical changes that can be made at the Operator Level . Initially its an fcc decision of how they are allocating the spectrum. If through pure happenstance a company wins several licenses in the market and they lie next to each other, they can create this, but that doesnt happen very often. So, through regulatory foresight, this program can be alleviated. Okay. Thank you very much. Question for mr. La platny. I want to talk to you about the next gen tv. You know, i understand the transition that was made from analog to digital and the consumer benefits, the economic benefits and the need to sort of subsidize that transition. As a television watcher, i can understand the desire for better and better tv, more across better platform, utility and sharper and sharper resolution. But im not yet persuaded that this is as fundamental of a shift as the analog to digital shift was and i want to be persuaded of how revolutionary this technology is because im not there yet. So give me your best shot. Well, so the best way to explain it is the points we talked about earlier. So theres the ability in this standard to better target emergency warnings, including turning on devices, which i think is so far removed from what we can do today. You know, i think thats a much larger step than the analog to digital. The standard hybrid ip broadcast can i interrupt . Whats that . Let me just interrupt there. So what youre saying is ive got a device on my night stand and suddenly theres a tornado. So what happens . So we could alert your phone. It turns my phone on. Okay. If it has power. Okay. It would turn your phone on and it would there would be an alert that comes up and says you shall in the path of a storm or youre in imminent danger, take cover immediately. In fact, the tornados that went through mississippi, 21st of january f we had that technology, i believe we could have saved some lives. Nobody has that technology now . That technology is we can alert, but this Technology Allows us to target much more effectively. So, as an example, todays alerts sometimes can form to county lines and has a tornado moves through geography, it doesnt conform to county lines. You can alert just those consumers in the path of the storm. The poly gone in front of the storm as opposed to Montgomery County and prince georges county. Its a much more targeted alert that would be more effective. Thank you, senator shots for letting me interject there. So, i want to understand when you talk about next gen tv. It sounds like a platform thats integrating several different kinds of new technology because this ability to turn on your device for sort of civil defense, this preparedness purposes is not the thats not the Central Technology that i was thinking of when i hear about the next gen tv. Again, its a hybrid broadcast standard, so it allows again, better, more relevant advertising for our viewers and users. Thats important to the broadcast industry because currently our targeting capabilities are way behind our friends over on the mobile side or the cable folks or facebook or google. In a given market today, facebook or google could take 40, 50, 60 of the advertising revenue to market. Theres that cape ability. It also offers the ability for a user to have a more hulu or netflix type of experience. So you have a drop down menu and you want to know what the scores of some game other than the one youre watching or want to know who that actor, is it allows that type of interaction. And then it also it can transmit to suitly equip mobile devices. For our industry is almost a game changer. As you know, the growth it can transmit from the tv tower. Oh from the tower to any platd form, tablet or whatever it may bay . Right. If it has the 3. 0 chip in it. It would have a to arent there other ways to do that right now . There are ways to get a get tv on your tablet, right . You can. But its over ip essentially. This is broadcast. I think the key there is that, you know, if you in having four boys i can tell you that we have data cap issues in our house. And if somebody wants to watch movies over 3. 0, its not going to hit their data cap. So if theyre consuming a lot of video. Having one boy, i like it when we hit our cap. So theres a number of different capabilities and its its a game changer for the industry. Thank you very much. Senator fisher . Thank you, senator shots. Thank you, senator fisher and thank you to all the panelists and i, too apologize for us being in and out this morning on votes. I thought mr. Heiner i wanted to followup a little on your testimony where you advocated for a balanced all of the above approach to spectrum policy and i cant agree more. I think folks around the country benefit most when we have both licensed and unlicensed spectrum available to them. And you know, you talked about the example i think of the Wireless Phone industry. I know that data from cisco shows that 60 of wireless traffic was off loaded on to Wifi Networks last year. Which helped create a positive Consumer Experience where Network Traffic was alleviated and the industry all around thrived as a result. Can you elaborate a little more specifically on how a balanced all of the above approach to National Spectrum policy that includes both licensed and unlicensed spectrum will benefit Rural Communities specifically . Yeah, i would be happy to and thank you very much for the question. Mr. Bergman was describing just a few minutes ago the possibilities of greater access for Rural Communities through 5g. And new spectrum. What i would focus on as well then is the possibility of using Tv White Spaces Technology. Right . This is in the 600 megahertz band where new spectrum is made available as a result of the incentive auction and this band has propagation characteristics such that at very low power and so low cost a transmitter can serve quite a large community. Okay. So for instance, we have this trial running. Were getting it running in southern virginia. Where this school has fixed broad band access to wired connection. The students are dispersed around that rural area and through just a series of handful of transmitters we will be able to reach 7,200 kids. And there are address the homework gap. So in that region, half the kids do have broad band at home and half the kids dont. Yep. So the concept is you give each of those the kids who dont this little device that will only cost about 50 and it picks up the tv white spaces signal and basically turns it into a wifi signal. So in this manner we can help address the homework gap. Thats fabulous. I expect that there would be telehealth applications as well . There. There would be. We would be discussing it a minute ago. We have a trial in botswana and were bringing doctors in the urban areas to patients in the rural areas through this technology. Thank you very much. I wanted to follow up, too, with mr. La platny because, you know, i am strongly supportive of the recent spectrum auction. I think it holds great promise for innovation and our economy and im pleased to see it moving forward. Youve talked this morning about some of the challenges that broadcast stations face as they need to move to different frequencies and to what im learning as the industry term repack here. And i know ive been talking with broadcasters in New Hampshire and across the country and i know we all want to make sure were prepared. I wanted to focus a little bit on the issue for radio stations. I know we talked about television broad ka casting, but particularly those who share towers with television stations. If so are there any resources or recourse available or is there more that needs to be done to address the issue of radio in particular . Thanks for your question. There are a number of towers, television towers, that have radio occupants throughout the country. And during the repack process, when we have tower riggers climbing up and down towers, there will be times where those radio antennas will be powered down or shut off. So its a real issue. You know, it could be for hours at a time or for days at a time. So i do think something has to be done. It underscores the fcc to take a rational approach to the repack and i know that the members of the nab are currently in conversation with folks at the fcc around talking about this issue and trying to come up with some answers. Thank you very much. Thank you. I see senator thun has arrived. Senator thun. Thank you, mr. Chairman. I appreciate the Sub Committee having this hearing and putting together such an excellent panel. I wanted to say how much i appreciate the work that you all do connecting people across the country from remote rural areas to cities to each other and the world. And providing education, entertainment and Public Safety services which contributes greatly to the economy and the quality of life for every american. You all drive the innovation and investment that made the United States leader in advanced Wireless Technology. Our job in congress is to make sure that consistent with our National Security and Public Welfare obligations the market has access to spectrum and the industry isnt unduly burdened when getting it into service. The committee reported out a bill here recently called the mobile now act and that makes a down payment on that obligation. It would make available 255 megahertz of prime spectrum both licensed and unlicensed in the next three years, but that really is just the beginning. To meet americas demand for a mobile broad band, the Wireless Industry needs more than 350 megahertz of new licensed spectrum by 2019. The mobile now act would direct the fcc and tia to study the potential for commercial service in spectrum bands but having access to spectrum is only part of the challenge. It can take years and tremendous investment to deploy new Wireless Services and so the bill also streamlines the process of applying for easements, rights of ways and leases for federally managed property and establishing a shot clock for reviewing of those applications which we think is something thats essential. Mobile now also establish a National Broad band facility Data Base Listing Public Private for building or operating communications facilities. Im hoeping we can get the bill pass and i look forward to the senate the full Senate Acting on that in the coming weeks and very much focus on working with our colleagues on this committee and the entire senate and the house. In making the next payment towards wireless leadership. I want to direct this next question to mr. Bergman the widespread deployment of small cells is a massive undertaking for companies and government officials. Are there opportunities to Work Together so it focuses only on sitings that raise significant deployment issues . So thank you, chairman thun and we certainly commend you and Ranking Member nelson and the committee for the work on mobile now and that focus on infrastructure is tremendously important as we look to lead in that race to 5g and certainly small cell deployment is an absolutely critical part of that equation. Our companies are looking to deploy hundreds of thousands of small cells to deliver that high capacity service. And being able to move quickly is something that will reduce costs, enable us to move faster. Right now today there are challenges both with the local zoning process and as you mentioned with federal agencies. So, we would certainly appreciate this committees attention to finding opportunities to right size that process so that we exclude small cells where appropriate that are the size of a pizza box or lunchbox. I dont think anyone thinks that the process that allow plies to 200 foot tower should apply when youre putting a lunchbox on top of an existing building. We would love to work with you to try to find opportunities to speed those deployments. In the end, what it will mean is 275 billion of investment and 3 million jobs. So thats a real priority. All right. We appreciate. Mr. Chairman, thank you and thanks for the opportunity to speak at this hearing. Thank you mr. Thun. And im going to go ahead and take my questions now and then senator udahl is after this. Mr. Entnor in my home state of colorado a Company Announced they would bring us closer to 5g. Of course companies have to evaluate and reevaluate their Spectrum Holdings to determine how best to play a role in this wireless innovation. As you talk about in your testimony, high, mid and lowband spectrum will all be critical to building the next generation of wireless service. What are some of the specific bands you believe can help advance this effort. Mr. Heiner was asked a similar question but can you elaborate further . Thank you. We could certainly use more spectrum below 1 gig hertz, as it is ideal to penetrate walls and cover rural areas. Adjacent to the current bands would be most appropriate. When we look at mid spectrum, again, here bands that are currently idle or largely idle would be appropriate around navigation, for example. Then the large swaths in the millimeter band that are actually unused at this time and should also be broadened and the fcc has several proposals here in this space. I just want to bring to the attention of the committee, you know, over the weeks all the wireless carriers were reintroduced unlimited plans so that people like the fellow witnesses here no longer have the problem with data caps. I think appreciated what impact it will have actually on spectrum. When we look at lte, we currently are getting faster speeds from our mobile networks than we get from wifi. And when unlimited is now back, the whole insendive of using wifi has been diminished significantly because theres no cost advantage anymore to shifting over to wi fvgs i. That will drive really the demand for licensed spectrum further. And thats why we need more spectrum. Thank you, mr. Entnor, the United States is a Global Leader in wireless service, other nations are quickly catching up and trying to exceed and advance us in this space, particularly nations like south korea, japan, important that we remain our competitive advantage, number one in the world and Wireless Technologies rely on spectrum to operate. So that means we need more spectrum than currently available and thats why i support freeing up more federal government spectrum for such uses. What do you think the impact on american competitiveness would be if we dont have adequate spectrum in the pipeline . Thank you, senator gardener. So what were seeing is more wireless being integrated into every major sector of the economy. We talked earlier about energy, transportation, health care. These are places where our leadership in 4 g gave us tremendous advantages. And economy that didnt exist seven years ago now employs over 1. 6 million people. So we want to make sure that in that race to 5g with even more capabilities were out in front and that we keep innovation here in the u. S. Thats why the work that you all are doing on spectrum, on infrastructure siting is really critical. Thank you. Next is senator miran. Thank you, thank you very much. Thank you all for being here. Let me start with mr. Bergman. I apologize for my absence for your testimony and also most of the questioning. So you may be repeating and answering me something thats already been asked, but we paid a lot of attention to spectrum issues and want to make sure good things are happening. Last summer the fcc identified several high band spectrum frontier several high bands in their spectrum frontier proceedings. The fcc do enough . Is there a need for additional high band spectrum above the 24 gig hertz for terrestrial mobile systems . What else can be done to ensure . Thank you, senator miran. The fccs action to make that high band spectrum available is really important. Thats going to be the initial platform where 5g services are tested and launched. So thats an important step. Really commend this committee for your focus on additional bands and at the fcc the leadership of chairman pi, commissioner oreilly, commissioner clyburn all of whom have talked about the importance of high band speck strum, they have a proceeding now where they proposed to make 18 gig hertz of high band spectrum available. That spectrum will deliver speed ten times what we have today, services five times more responsive and when you think about applications like self driving cars, you want to make sure you have responsive services. And the ability to connect 100 times the devices that we have today. So as we think about the internet of things, and what that will open up in terms of opportunities for savings and the energy sector, theres tremendous potential from that high band spectrum making sure we get that to market quickly, that we have large contiguous channels is my copanelists have said and that we have an emphasis on licensed spectrum to allow us to provide that performance, provide that reliability and that security that we expect out of those kinds of health care and other services is really critical. Let me turn to mr. Heiner in regards to unlicensed spectrum. We worked to try to encourage a balanced approach to licensed and unlicensed spectrum. Let me ask you about the continued dand for unlicensed spectrum. I assume growing at exponential rates. Where do we look . What bands might we still find . The demand is growing very, very rapidly. We do need to look across all three bands, low, middle and high. Low ive explained a little bit. Gives us the opportunity for Tv White Spaces Technology to serve rural areas and it can work in urban areas as well. In the mid range, thats where we have the existing technology 2. 4 and 5 gig and theres opportunities there to expand those bands. Then in the millimeter bands, were very enthused by the spectrum frontiers proceeding where spectrum was opened up between 57 and i think 72 gig hertz and as mr. Enter in was saying, with that much spectrum, theres the possibility of setting up wider channels. Those wider channels have more throughput and so its very efficient use of technology. A new standard has been developed. This is the industry coming together on a consensus basis through a standard setting body and created a standard beyond wifi called y gig and the gig is for very high throughput. And i believe that standard requires the 160 megahertz channels. Which the millimeter bands can afford. So, were very enthused about that. Keep looking i think is your answer. And keep looking. Thats right. Let me turn to mr. La platny. Although i didnt hear your testimony, im astute enough to know that you mentioned my name. Thank you. We have been working on an issue of importance. Theres no one i shouldnt say that. I come from a place in which getting broad band opportunities to Rural America is significantly important, spectrum matters to us. But so does community broadcasting. And i want to indicate that we want to be in a position to make certain that good things happen in this repack process. Whats going on that has a consequence on nexties in your . So we are in the early stages of repacking. We talked earlier about broadcasters now doing engineering studies and it appears based on current data there will be 1,000 to 1,100 stations repacked which is a pretty significant number. So we as of today believe that the amount of time we have to complete the repack and the amount of money we have is insufficient. And so we will appreciate your continued oversight and as we get more information, we will certainly pass that along. We have surgeons today. That said, we will do everything we can to make sure that if theres a way to do it in 39 months, were going to do it. I appreciate that. I think i would back on the idea that theres any desire to slow this process down. We all want it to work very quickly for the benefit of all. Mr. Chairman, thank you very much. Absolutely. Thank you, senator. Chairman wicker, thank you so much and this has been a fascinating panel, i think, with a lot of excellent testimony. So thank you for baring with us in the middle of the vote and continuing here. As you all know, today there are more wireless devices than there are people in the United States. And with so many new wireless devices connecting to the internet, we could face a spectrum crunch. That could hinder the next internet revolution. Thats why im pleased that my spectrum challenge prize act has been approved by this committee. This contest would provide a significant monetary award to the first person who finds a way to make spectrum use vastly more efficient. This approach helps incentivize more innovators and researchers to focus on the problem. And will help use American Ingenuity to solve it. Chairman wicker, im also pleased that mr. Platny is here to give a broadcasters perspective. We tend to forget that broadcasting is our first Wireless Technology and is still relevant today. Now, mr. Bergman, my first question is for you. Senator miran and i worked in 2015 to reform the spectrum relocation fund. This multimillion dollar fund pays if costs of relocating federal users when a particular spectrum band is auctioned for commercial use. The spectrum pipeline act made 500 million existing money available for rnd and pilot projects that could lead to more efficient federal use of spectrum. Last year they issued guidance to agencies for proposing plans to use these funds. Mr. Bergman, do you agree that they should continue to make Spectrum Reallocation Fund Resources Available to federal agencies exploring how to use spectrum more efficiently . Senator, we truly appreciate the work that you and the senator miran have done to improve the spectrum relocation fund. Its an important tool for making sure that there are the right incentives and opportunities for Win Win Solutions to put spectrum to efficient use. We know that federal agencies have exclusive or primary access to enter between 60 to 70 of the spectrum below 3 gig hertz, so trying to make sure were using that spectrum as efficiently, identifying opportunities to make that available for commercial use is a really important goal and that tool is a very strong one. We believe that there are truly opportunities for win wins. The aws auction was an opportunity for government users to upgrade their systems and resulted in making available 65 megahertz of spectrum that went on to produce the Worlds Largest or the u. S. Largest spectrum auction. So we certainly appreciate your work on that. Thank you. And appreciate that answer. Mr. Heiner, your testimony briefly discusses Cloud Computing. This is a topic of keen interest to me. And oversight to increase cloud adoption. I believe replacing socalled legacy i. T. With modern solutions can save the federal government billions of dollars in improved cyber security. Can you share more about why microsoft and other companies are increasingly leveraging the cloud and what that means for future broad band connectivity needs . Yes. And thank you for the question. Every 15 years or so theres a major shift in the computing landscape. We had the mainframe era in the 60s and then the revolution of personal computing then the shift to Client Server computing so these were pcs and then servers running in the back end at enterprises. And today, its Cloud Computing. The basic concept is that its incredibly economically efficient to run servers in central locations, these data centers, rather than at each individual company. The analogy someone offered is to energy, where in the 1880s it was a revolution that you could have electric power and each factory had its own generator and someone dreamt up, you know, ill make power for the whole city. And that was then we had coned and that was much more efficient. Well, its similar with the cloud as well. So we really believe and were seeing it in the marketplace that enterprises around the world will be more efficient and will have better access to Data Analytics and even Artificial Intelligence techniques if they are delivered via the cloud. The same is true for the federal government and obviously its a big lift to move legacy systems over to that new approach and it will take a long time. But we believe that ought to be done as well. Now, the cloud is operating its data centers in remote locations. So people need connectivity to reach those data centers. Its just as simple as that. Its an absolute sin kwa nonfor the Cloud Computing to have firstrate connectivity. Whether its licensed or unlicensed. Thank you very much and thank you, mr. Chairman. Thank you. Senator peters . Thank you, mr. Chairman and thanks to each of our panelists today for your testimony on very important subject. Mr. Heiner, i have a question for you in some area that i find particularly fascinating and thats whats being done by american manufacturers that are using the white space spectrum. I was particularly intrigued by some of thework that microsoft is doing in virginia to help the homework gap by using white spaces to leverage the fiber connections that run through these schools and allows students in surrounding areas to access their Schools Network wirelessly from home, which is incredibly important for education today. In your estimation, what must be done at the fcc to ensure that we have enough tv white space channels available so that we can have this kind of unlicensed use that be so beneficial . Well, we just need to conclude the incentive process and socalled repacking of the tv channels. In such a way that theyre as much spectrum available for tv white spaces as possible. And in particular, theres this possibility of having vacant channels in some areas where theres not enough tv stations to fill up all of the available spectrum and we would like to see as many vacant channels as possible that we can leverage for tv white spaces. And also have a system where from coast to coast in both rural and urban areas certain channels are just set aside for tv white spaces in that way, the Device Manufacturers will know that they can build a device and it can be deployed any place in the country. Do you see any other challenges that in expanding School Connectivity . Which i think is so important, the things that we should be working on . Well, its a question of setting up incentives for investment. I mean, nothing is free. But the technology is very efficient. We can have low power transmitters that are relatively inexpensive and the devices in the students homes are relatively inexpensive as well. We do have a petition pending at the fcc to try to clarify that the Erate Program should cover tv white spaces as well as the other means of access to the internet and we hope that moves forward. I know you addressed this next topic in your written testimony. I dont think you addressed it before us here as a panel, but this is really to all of you. I think its an important question for us to think about. We know that the advances in technology that were seeing are all accelerating at an exponential rate and that curve seems to get steeper and steeper every year as we go forward. Then on our side, when it comes to Public Policy, we know the rate of progress from us moves at a pretty consistent rate, which is called the snails pace, as it goes forward. Which means it is tough for some of our regulatory agencies to keep up particularly if theyre underfunded, lack personnel, lack expertise. They probably need all those things, bewe also know thats a difficult sell in this current fiscal environment. So we have to look for opportunities to collaborate with academia, standard setting bodies, industry to come up with some voluntary standards to deal with all of these various technologies to kind of find a unified approach. You mentioned this in your written if you want to expand on that but i would certainly encourage the other witnesses if you have some thoughts as to how we put together these kinds of partnerships to make sure were allowing the technology to flourish and innovation to flourish but also dealing with some of the challenges associated with it. Well, i would touch on the benefits of collaborative industry setting. The Bluetooth Technology that were all using everyday, that was a voluntary industry standard, wifi is a standard, y gig which i referred to earlier. Certain issues can arise in terms of avoiding interference when you have shared spectrum with other users in that spectrum or in adjacent channels. Sometimes it seems as if the fcc regulation may get a little heavier than is needed to really address those concerns and we would encourage that wherever possible the industry Work Together again through standard setting bodies to achieve that. More broadly, i think we need to work with the International Telecommunications union and microsoft, its part, part of the government delegation to the worldwide spectrum discussions that are going on through the itu. And we very much support the efforts of working with academics as well. Thank you for your question, senator peters. I suggest that atsc 3rks 0rks has been a tremendously collaborative and very quickly moving process relative to past standard changes. The last time we changed the tv standard it took 19 years. This particular transition or this Standard Development is moving at a much quicker pace. Were encouraged by that and encouraged by the current fcc that its helping us move that along. So thank you. Thank you. I think we saw the beginning of that opportunity in some discussions between the Wireless Industry and the satellite industry and the spectrum frontiers proceeding something that becomes more important as we look at the millimeter wave bands because despite all of the discussion thats taken place, many of those bands have been identified for the growth of the satellite industry. And the topic of service to rural areas came up several times during the course of the discussions today. Thats been an area with the satellite industry has been providing service, including Tele Medicine Services for decades. I noted in my testimony the growth of the industry, the new satellites that are being launched already have been launched in providing fcc broad band speeds and the continued growth with satellites. Being able to access that spectrum and in some cases on a shared basis continues to be very important and hopefully it will be done through voluntary discussions. So thank you, senator peters. I would say the Wireless Industry participates in a variety of different standard setting bodies both for unlicensed spectrum, licensed spectrum. Its a tremendously important tool for the industry in terms of being able to develop and bring new products to market. Certainly one reason why we like a mix of both unlicensed and licensed spectrum is with looichxed spectrum, were able to Bring New Services to market quicker sometimes because we can launch services before standards are developed. To your point about collaborative processes, thats another great one. That is certainly a model that we in the Wireless Industry have embraced, whether its wireless emergency alerts or 911 location accuracy, we found a successful ability to partner in those two cases with Public Safety but in other cases as well to try to advance Public Policy goals in a flexible and nimble way. Right. Thank you. Thank you, senator. I think one of the things that as you mentioned technology is progressing exponentially where as government policy not always is following the pace. I think it just needs more foresight so that we are using more Ambitious Goals in what were clearing and making available to industry. I think overall the technology and telecommunication industry has worked very well together. One notable example is for example lteu and licensed assist access, so i think we should encourage these type of voluntary processes with a light touch regulatory environment. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, senator peters. Senator enhoff. Thank you, chairman. I guess the panel knows that were sultly meeting with other committe committees, so i have to reprogram my senator Arms Services concerns here so i dont know really what youve already gone over, but if we look at the looking forward, mr. Bergman, deployment of the next generation of Telecommunications Technology will allow faster internet speeds which will require a substantial infrastructure investment. Now, have you really discussed what we can do . And this is congress now. Were partner and we want to help. What should we be doing . So senator enhof, youre right. Were facing a great opportunity and a great challenge as we look to lead in 5g, we recognize its a whole new network. Built not just around tall towers but also around hundreds of thousands of small cells that are the size of pizza boxes or lunchboxes that will enable us to have these much faster, much higher capacity services. Couple of things that this committee can do is to work with us to make sure that local permitting processes are not overly burdensome. So make sure we have access to rights of way and poles on a timely basis. And fees that are reasonable and cost based. To make sure that federal agencies move quickly and have deadlines. So particularly as we look to parts of country that have large areas of federal lands or federal buildings, the delays today can be on the order of two to four years and sometimes much longer than that. So if we can start to shorten that, well be able to get that infrastructure out there more quickly and more cheaply. And maybe also when i was spent 30 years on that side of the table, the problem i had with federal government very often was predictability and knowing in advance whats going to happen. You mentioned the towers. Well, you have to know well in advance before a huge expenditures are made what the rules are going to be when you finally get to the point where you will try to make it happen. I assume that will be one of your concerns. Well, understand the consumer demand for wireless more than doubled in 2015 alone. See, i didnt know this. Im the newest one on this committee. To meet this you have to rely on licensed spectrum which you exclusively own and unlicensed spectrum which anyone can use. So, could you share with the committee why its important to use both licensed and unlicensed spectrum to meet the growing consumer demand, which is realized last year alone. Sure, senator. Both licensed and unlicensed are really important parts of the Wireless Industrys ability to serve. We off load traffic to unlicensed speck strum. Were looking to launch new lte based services in spectrum. License remains the foundation of mobile networks and thats a place that enables us to build in highly reliable, highly secure services. So as we look to 5g and the kinds of things like selfdriving cars or remote surgery, where we want to have a really high level, high quality of service, licenses will be a critically important part of that overall equation. Thank you, senator. Yes. Mr. Heiner, microsoft has been leading innovator and fcc directed more spectrum be made available, balancing between licensed and unlicensed spectrum. Do you believe there is appropriate balance between the two licensed and unlicensed . Well, i mean, i think a theme coming out of the hearing today is everyone on this side of the table would like to see as much spectrum as possible allocated to both licensed and unlicensed use. We speak very much in terms of a balanced spectrum policy. That doesnt necessarily mean like one megahertz for one unlicensed and one megahertz for licensed. At different bands, it may be more it may make more sense to allocate more to licensed or more to unlicensed in a particular circumstance. We are enthused about the extra bandwidth that opened up in the 600 megahertz band as a result of the incentive auction and were enthused about the spectrum frontiers proceeding where new spectrum has opened up as well. Just to your point about predictabili predictability, of course that is important, too. Because you need to know sort of years in ahead in order to plan and develop standards and build devices. And its been a little bit of a challenge in the tv white spaces area, you know, over the past ten years where the rules have been a little bit in flux. We really feel like we need to move forward with investing in that technology now and were sort f of redoubling our efforts and field like the rules are almost done and were ready to move forward. I would like to bring that up. Thats true with any issue we can be talking about right now it seems like government doesnt have the understanding that they really need to know is what is going to be expected of them next year or ten years from now because the investment sometimes has to be made way in advance. And im sure you covered quite a few things. I apologize for those of us on Armed Services for not being here. Thats all i have. Thank you, senator. Well, this has been a very interesting and enlightening two hours. I think this was an important hearing with very talented and knowledgeable panel. We have weve been interrupted by votes and other committee meetings, so it may be that you did have to reiterate a few themes, but thats helpful to us also. So thank you very much and well stand adjourned and express our appreciation on behalf of the entire Sub Committee. Thank you very much. The record will stay open for two weeks. Thank you