How to Feed a Data-Hungry Public

[Commentary] Congressional hearings will take up the need for more wireless spectrum—the invisible radio frequencies that transmit information to and from mobile devices. Auctioning government spectrum to fulfill this need would not only provide significant revenue for the Treasury; it would also greatly benefit data-hungry American consumers. And because these auctions take years to prepare and implement, now is the time to begin the work.

Concepts in the Senate’s Wireless Innovation Act or the Wi-Fi Innovation Act in the House are a constructive place to begin. Congress can create financial incentives—such as allowing government agencies to share in auction proceeds—to encourage agencies like the Pentagon or the Transportation Department to relinquish spectrum that they aren’t efficiently using. But if the agencies balk, Congress should make them give it up. Congress should also consider spectrum sharing. The FCC proposed an idea, endorsed last year by the White House panel of science and technology advisers, to use database technology that would enable the sharing of radio frequencies among commercial broadband, military and other government systems. Spectrum sharing would benefit the armed services, helping to reduce the growing gap between communications technologies available to consumers and those available to our troops. It might also reduce Pentagon equipment costs. Unlicensed spectrum, for which government permission isn’t required for consumers to use, is another opportunity.

If we fail to adopt a plan to transfer federal spectrum to private users, policy makers may inadvertently undermine US competitiveness and job creation. Keeping discussions bipartisan and focused on solving problems through investment, innovation, job growth and new revenue for the Treasury will best ensure that new technologies pioneered in the US are first enjoyed by US consumers.

[Genachowski is a managing director at the Carlyle Group and former chairman of the Federal Communications Commission. McDowell, a former FCC commissioner, is a partner at Wiley Rein LLP and a senior adviser to Berenson]