Officials Debate Congressional Plan to Reallocate Radio Airwaves

Federal officials jousted Thursday over a congressional proposal to reallocate government radio airspace to private uses such as mobile phones, pagers and satellites and to assure room for new technologies such as high-definition television.

Janice Obuchowski, who heads a Commerce Department agency that oversees government radio use, warned of the costs and potential disruption to military and emergency communications and air traffic control if federal users relinquish frequencies as proposed in a bill by Reps. John Dingell (D-Mich.) and Edward Markey (D-Mass.).

“There is no fresh and virgin spectrum, and there will be some user displacement,” Obuchowski told the House Energy and Commerce subcommittee on telecommunications and finance. She said the Bush Administration opposes the bill.

But Alfred Sikes, chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, which regulates the commercial radio sector, said the government, if forced to do so, can find ways to turn over parts of its spectrum to the private sector.

However, he acknowledged that reallocation could be costly.

American technology so far has made major advances in squeezing more information onto the airwaves, but there are limits to such advances, Sikes said.