Passage of the comprehensive RAY BAUM Act by the House Tuesday (March 6) drew much of the same cheering crowd, with a few nits to pick sprinkled in, that greeted its unanimous passage out of the Energy & Commerce Committee.
It heads to the Senate, where it is expected to pass and be signed into law by the President.
“[T]his package represents a bipartisan, bicameral compromise that both makes good on a promise to broadcasters to hold harmless full power television and radio broadcasters in the incentive auction and puts the country on an important path towards leadership in 5G,” said FCC Commissioner Michael O’Rielly. “Specifically, by including both MOBILE NOW and the Spectrum Deposits Act [which insures that the FCC can hold future auctions] in today’s compromise, it provides an important technical fix and lays important groundwork for the FCC to proceed with key spectrum auctions. Once this becomes law there are several large-scale spectrum auctions for mid-band and millimeter wave spectrum – especially the upper 37 GHz (37.6-38.6 GHz) – that the Commission needs to conduct in the very near future,” he said. [READ MORE from Broadcasting & Cable]
