Text: State Dept's Lee on Wireless Telecommunications

(Says U.S. backs 3rd generation wireless system) (2350)







The U.S. State Department's coordinator for international

communications and information policy, Malcolm Lee, says the U.S.

government is committed to forging ahead to create the next generation

of wireless communications.





Lee, who holds the title of deputy assistant secretary of state for

economic and business affairs, briefed the House of Representatives

Commerce Subcommittee on Telecommunication, Trade and Consumer

Protection July 19 on wireless telecommunications policy.





He said the U.S. delegation at the World Radiocommunications

Conference (WRC-2000) in Istanbul this year negotiated a global policy

framework for third generation (3G) wireless systems.





In the near future, the United States will participate in a number of

international meetings designed to implement the WRC-2000 agreements,

Lee said.





Once deployed, 3G systems will allow people to communicate with each

other by voice, data and video throughout the world by means of

hand-held transmitters that will replace cell phones, U.S. officials

say.





Following is text of Lee's testimony, as prepared for delivery:







(begin text)







TESTIMONY OF MALCOLM R. LEE



DEPUTY ASSISTANT SECRETARY OF STATE



BEFORE THE HOUSE COMMERCE SUBCOMMITTEE ON



TELECOMMUNICATION, TRADE, AND CONSUMER PROTECTION







July 19, 2000







Introduction







Thank you Mr. Chairman. My name is Malcolm R. Lee. I am Deputy

Assistant Secretary of State for Economic and Business Affairs and the

United States Coordinator for International Communications and

Information Policy at the Department of State. Working with the

Secretary and Assistant Secretary for Economic Affairs, I am

responsible for the formulation, coordination, and oversight of

foreign policy related to international communications and information

policy, including determination of U.S. positions and the conduct of

United States participation in negotiations with foreign governments

and international bodies.





Before coming to the Department of State in June, I served as Special

Assistant to the President and Senior Director for International Trade

and Economic Policy within the National Economic Council of the White

House. There, I worked on a broad range of economic and trade matters,

including the 1997 World Trade Organization (WTO) Basic

Telecommunications Service Agreement, the U.S.- China Bilateral WTO

Accession Agreement, and legislation recently passed by the House of

Representatives to extend Permanent Normal Trade Relations status to

China.





It is a great pleasure to appear before this Committee to address the

important issues of spectrum management and the 2000 World

Radiocommunication Conference as they relate to Third Generation

wireless service and the 21st Century. I look forward to working

closely with you Mr. Chairman, Congressman Markey, and other members

of this Committee as I fulfill my responsibilities.









Economic and Technological Context







Mr. Chairman, I compliment you for convening this hearing. Information

and communications technology is transforming the U.S. economy,

fueling record growth, higher wages, higher productivity, and

fundamental changes in the way we conduct business and our daily

lives. Information technology (IT) accounts for only 8 percent of

total jobs, but has been responsible for nearly one-third of U.S.

economic growth from 1995 to 1999. Declining information technology

prices have lowered the overall inflation rate by one half of a

percentage point from 1994 to 1998. And the production and use of IT

was responsible for more than half of the acceleration in U.S.

productivity growth in the second half of the 1990s.





An integral component of this new economy is the wireless

telecommunications industry. Use of the airwaves -- the radio spectrum

-- is the lifeblood of this industry, as well as that of other

commercial and governmental users. The next generation of wireless

telecommunication services promises to expand further and

revolutionize this new IT-driven global economy with innovative new

services and capabilities for businesses and consumers.









The 2000 World Radiocommunication Conference







In my former capacity, I was able to attend, for a brief period in

May, the International Telecommunication Union's (ITU's) World

Radiocommunication Conference (WRC). I am pleased to have this

opportunity to describe to the Committee the results of that

Conference as they relate to third generation wireless.





The WRC is convened every two to three years under the auspices of the

ITU with the most recent WRC being held in Istanbul from May 8 to June

2, 2000. These conferences establish the frequency allocations and

regulatory procedures and regulations necessary for the harmonious

operation of global radiocommunication services. The WRC attempts to

establish an orderly global framework for the use of the radio

spectrum. Without that framework, and without coordination, chaos

would reign and radiocommunications would be impaired by interference

of competing signals and transmissions. The Final Acts of these

conferences are submitted to the Senate for advice and consent to

ratification.





I would like to recognize, at the outset, the truly outstanding

performance of Ambassador Gail Schoettler, former Lieutenant Governor

of Colorado, in leading the U.S. delegation in its preparation of U.S.

positions before the Conference, and in the presentation of those

positions at the Conference. Against difficult odds, Ambassador

Schoettler and her team delivered a magnificent result that preserved

and advanced U.S. interests. We can all be proud of the contribution

she made to this country in this capacity. I would also like to give

special recognition to all members of the U.S. delegation for their

tireless efforts before and during the Conference that resulted in the

solid achievements that we will review, in part, today.





We have much to learn from Ambassador Schoettler's success and I am

committed to taking whatever steps are necessary, in coordination with

the Commerce Department, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC),

and other interested agencies, to ensure we are effectively advancing

U.S. interests internationally. We must remain vigilant that we have

organized ourselves as effectively as possible, that the private

sector and government agencies are working as a team, and that we

begin our preparations early enough to ensure the best possible U.S.

proposals for the Conference. We must maintain high level attention

and reach out to our international partners. In that spirit, I have

consulted with the leadership of the Department of State, and will be

calling a meeting of relevant agencies to review our preparations for

WRC 2003. A careful review of Ambassador Schoettler's personal

specific recommendations, will be part of that process. Both my

interagency colleagues and I will continue consultations with the

private sector so that their views can be integrated into the planning

for WRC 2003.





The United States successfully addressed several important issues at

the WRC. These included:

-- Protecting existing radionavigation satellite bands from allocation

to other services and allocating a new band for this service;





-- Adopting technical provisions for sharing between geostationary and

non-geostationary satellite systems;





-- Fighting off restrictions on the free flow of information by making

sure that content based restrictions were not written into the Radio

Regulations; and





-- Ensuring new broadcasting-satellite channeling plans protected an

acceptable number of U.S. systems and imposed no unacceptable

technical or operational constraints for our region.





Third Generation (3G) wireless communications, collectively referred

to in the ITU as IMT-2000, was another prominent issue on the WRC-2000

agenda. The U.S. position on IMT-2000 was guided by three principles:





--To take into account incumbent users of the bands being considered

for possible IMT-2000 implementation;





--To establish a strong, forward-looking framework for the development

of new technologies; and,





--To preserve flexibility in the domestic implementation of the

Conference results on IMT-2000.





In other words, Mr. Chairman, the goal of the United States, often in

the face of strong opposition, was to maintain our national

prerogatives for management of potential 3G spectrum. That required

ensuring a result that would allow and encourage the development of

new advanced communications applications while taking into account

incumbent U.S. users of these bands. Maintaining U.S. flexibility for

upcoming national spectrum management decisions was essential to the

United States given important incumbent government and U.S. commercial

users in the bands that a number of prominent international players

sought for IMT-2000 use.





Results of the WRC 2000







At the Conference, the United States faced a strong push by the

European Conference of Posts and Telecommunications (CEPT), many

Asia-Pacific states, and several countries in our region, for globally

harmonized bands for 3G wireless services. These proposals were for

the use of bands with either existing heavy U.S. government use or

with existing heavy U.S. commercial and educational users. I refer

here to the bands 1710-1885 MHz and 25002690 MHz, respectfully. The

1710-1885 MHz band is heavily used by Federal agencies, particularly

the Department of Defense, for uses such as point-to-point tactical

microwave relay transmissions and space operations. A portion of this

band, 1710-1755 MHz, has already been reallocated in 1999 for

non-Government use as of January 2004 under the 1993 Omnibus Budget

Reconciliation Act (OBRA 93). The 25002690 MHz band is extensively

used by commercial and educational entities, such as colleges and

universities that are licensed to operate Instructional Fixed

Television Service (ITFS) stations for distance learning applications

as well as for commercial purposes such as the Multi-point,

Multi-channel Distribution Service (MMDS).





In recognition of existing systems in these bands, and the need to lay

a framework for development and deployment of new technologies such as

3G, the United States developed a proposal for the WRC that identified

multiple bands for possible IMT-2000 use. This proposal was developed

with the full participation of the U.S. private sector and interested

U.S. government agencies. In the end, the WRC adopted the essence of

the U.S. proposals and identified spectrum in several bands, or

portions of those bands, as being available for IMT-2000 or for other

services. The result allows for U.S. domestic processes to evaluate

and study future deployment of 3G services.





The WRC decisions on IMT-2000 were consistent with the principles I

stated earlier and with the proposal of the United States entering the

Conference. The results provide us the necessary flexibility to decide

what is best for the United States in the development of IMT-2000

service offerings, while giving full consideration to the incumbent

users of the identified bands, evolving markets forces, and other

domestic and international considerations. The WRC resolution relating

to IMT-2000 and the new spectrum allocation stated:





"...due consideration should be given to the benefits of harmonized

utilization of the spectrum for the terrestrial component of IMT-2000,

taking into account the use and planned use of these bands by all

services to which these bands are allocated."





The WRC did not assign any priority to the implementation of one band

over another, thus maintaining the implementation flexibility sought

by the United States.





The Road Ahead







The Department of State will work closely with other interested

agencies to ensure that the results of the WRC relating to 3G are

translated into benefits for the U.S. Government, the private sector,

and U.S. citizens. The results of WRC 2000 will be implemented in the

United States through processes undertaken and managed by the relevant

domestic agencies, principal among them being the FCC and the National

Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) at the

Department of Commerce. Assistant Secretary Rohde of the Department of

Commerce and FCC Wireless Bureau Chief Sugrue have outlined their

plans in this regard.





The Department of State, in cooperation with the other agencies, will

present the results of these domestic processes before a variety of

international fora. This requires developing international positions

and strategies -- at bilateral, regional and multilateral levels -- to

advance U.S. policies and interests. Timely domestic decisions by the

relevant technical agencies on 3G related spectrum will put the United

States in the best position to engage other countries as they

formulate their own domestic policies and requirements with respect to

3G services.





Mr. Chairman, allow me to note a few of the activities that the

Department of State has already undertaken, or will undertake, to

ensure that the results of WRC 2000 are implemented in a manner

consistent with U.S. principles and global economic goals.





There will be several international meetings in the near future during

which we will have the opportunity to engage other countries in order

to advocate U.S. interests with regard to 3G wireless services. Among

these meetings will be an August meeting of the organization of

American States Consultative Committee on Radiocommunication Matters

(CITEL) and an international meeting in August of ITU Working Party 8F

which has been assigned the work relating to IMT-2000 and future

advanced mobile telecommunications applications.





Among our objectives at these meetings will be to secure leadership

positions in relevant activities and to shape discussion and agendas

in a way that will advance U.S. spectrum policies. Several of these

meetings will tackle technical work necessary to evaluate the

implications of IMT-2000 implementation in the specific bands

identified at WRC-2000. Among other things, this work includes

technical evaluation of the ability of IMT-2000 systems to share

common spectrum with incumbent systems without interfering with each

other's operations.





Conclusion







Mr. Chairman, in conclusion, we are pleased to report that the WRC

2000 results with respect to IMT-2000 met U.S. objectives. We

maintained the flexibility necessary to pursue our national

prerogatives for the possible implementation of IMT-2000 in several

bands identified at WRC. The U.S. process for assessing the

feasibility of implementing IMT-2000 in these bands has already begun

through the initiatives of the relevant government agencies. The

Department of State is a partner in these initiatives as we carry

forward the results of the U.S. domestic process into a growing number

of international fora.





Thank you, Mr. Chairman and to the Subcommittee for this opportunity

to share with you some of the results of WRC 2000, and to report on

our ongoing activities to promote the full benefits of the emerging

information and communications technology based economy.





I look forward to working with you Mr. Chairman, with this Committee,

with my colleagues at other government agencies, and with the private

sector to ensure that the Department of State, and the U.S. Government

as a whole, are doing everything we can to advance U.S. interests

internationally.





(end text)







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