The MOBILE NOW Act SB19/115th: A bill to provide opportunities for broadband investment, and for other purposes

Making Opportunities for Broadband Investment and Limiting Excessive and
Needless Obstacles to Wireless Act or the MOBILE NOW Act

(Sec. 3) This bill requires the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA)
and the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), by December 31, 2020, to make available at
least 255 megahertz of federal and nonfederal spectrum below the frequency of 6000 megahertz for
mobile and fixed wireless broadband use. At least: (1) 100 megahertz shall be made available on an
unlicensed basis; and (2) 100 megahertz shall be made available on an exclusive, licensed basis for
commercial mobile use, pursuant to the FCC’s authority to implement licensing in a flexible manner,
and subject to potential continued use of such spectrum by incumbent federal entities in designated
geographic areas indefinitely or for a length of time stipulated in transition plans approved by an
NTIA technical panel for those incumbent entities to relocate to alternative spectrum.

In making such spectrum available, the Department of Commerce and the FCC must consider:
(1) the need to preserve critical existing and planned federal government capabilities;
(2) the impact on existing state, local, and tribal government capabilities;
(3) international implications;
(4) appropriate enforcement mechanisms and authorities; and
(5) the importance of the deployment of wireless broadband services in rural areas.

(Sec. 4) The NTIA must submit to Congress and the FCC an assessment of the feasibility of
authorizing mobile or fixed terrestrial wireless operations, including for advanced mobile
service operations, on federal entities and operations in specified frequency bands. The FCC
must publish a notice of proposed rulemaking within two years after enactment of this bill,
or within 90 days after it receives the NTIA’s feasibility assessment, whichever is earlier, to
consider service rules authorizing such operations.

(Sec. 5) Commerce and the FCC must submit reports evaluating the feasibility of allowing
commercial wireless services to share the use of specified frequencies between 3100 and 4200
megahertz. If such sharing is feasible, the reports must identify which of the frequencies are
most suitable for sharing with commercial wireless services through the assignment of new
licenses by competitive bidding, for sharing with unlicensed operations, or through a
combination of licensing and unlicensed operations. The FCC must seek public comment
regarding these reports.

(Sec. 6) The Middle-Class Tax Relief and Job Creation Act of 2012 is amended to require
executive agencies, within 270 days after receiving an application, to grant or deny easements,
rights-of-way, or leases to, in, over, or on federal property to install, construct, modify, or
maintain a communications facility installation. Executive agencies must: (1) notify
applicants of the reasons for denials, and (2) designate an agency point of contact for
applicants. The bill expands the categories of infrastructure, antennas, wiring, and wireless
transmission equipment for which applicants may seek such easements, rights-of-way, or leases.

The NTIA must coordinate with the Departments of the Interior, Agriculture, Defense, and
Transportation (DOT), the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), and the General Services
Administration to develop recommendations for tracking and expediting such applications.

(Sec. 7) To facilitate the installation of broadband infrastructure, DOT must ensure that states
receiving federal-aid highway funds: (1) identify a broadband utility coordinator to facilitate
the broadband infrastructure right-of-way efforts within the state; (2) register broadband
infrastructure entities that seek to be included in those facilitation efforts; (3) establish a
the process to electronically notify such entities of the state transportation improvement program
on an annual basis; (4) coordinate statewide telecommunication and broadband plans and state
and local transportation and land use plans, including strategies to minimize repeated excavations
that involves the installation of broadband infrastructure in a right-of-way, and (5) ensure that
any existing broadband infrastructure entities are not disadvantaged.

Nothing in this section establishes a mandate or requirement that a state installs broadband
infrastructure in a highway right-of-way.

(Sec. 8) The Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) must establish a single database of
real property owned, leased, or managed by executive agencies that is capable of supporting a
communications facility installation. The OSTP must make the database available to (1) entities
that construct or operate communications facility installations or provide communications service,
and (2) state and local governments so that they may provide information regarding state and local
properties to include in the database. The OSTP must report to Congress regarding potential ways
to incentivize state and local governments to provide such information.

(Sec. 9) After notice and an opportunity for public comment, Commerce must submit
recommendations to incentivize federal entities to relinquish, or share with federal or nonfederal
users, the federal spectrum for commercial wireless broadband services. It must consider whether
permitting eligible federal entities to accept payments could expedite access to eligible frequencies.

(Sec. 10) The FCC must collaborate with the NTIA to determine the best means of providing federal
entities flexible access to nonfederal spectrum on a shared basis across a range of short-, mid-, and
long-range time frames, including for intermittent purposes like emergency use.

(Sec. 11) After public notice and comment, the FCC must adopt rules that permit unlicensed services
to use guard bands designated to protect frequencies allocated by competitive bidding if it would not
cause harmful interference.

(Sec. 12) The OMB may provide pre-auction funding to federal agencies for auctions intended to occur
within eight years (currently, five years) after the transfer of funds.

(Sec. 13) Federal entities may request an immediate transfer of funds to pay for relocation or sharing
costs after the frequencies are reallocated by competitive bidding.

(Sec. 14) The FCC must provide notice and an opportunity for public comment before it submits reports
regarding: (1) the results of rule changes relating to the frequencies between 3550 and 3650 megahertz,
and (2) proposals to promote and identify additional spectrum bands that can be shared between
incumbent uses and new licensed and unlicensed services under such rules and that identify at least
1 gigahertz between 6 gigahertz and 57 gigahertz for such use.

(Sec. 15) The Government Accountability Office must recommend policies to increase the availability
of broadband Internet access using unlicensed spectrum and wireless networks in low-income
neighborhoods, particularly for elementary and secondary school-aged children.

(Sec. 16) The FCC must assess whether to establish a program or modify existing programs, under
which a licensee that receives a license for the exclusive use of spectrum in a specific geographic area
may partition or disaggregate the license by sale or long-term lease to provide services consistent with
the license and make unused spectrum available to (1) unaffiliated small carriers with not more than
1,500 employees, or (2) other unaffiliated carriers to serve rural areas.

(Sec. 17) The bill declares that it is U.S. policy to (1) maximize U.S. spectrum resources to benefit the
U.S. people, (2) advance wireless broadband innovation and investment, and (3) make available on
an unlicensed basis radio frequency bands sufficient to meet consumer demand.

The FCC must ensure that its spectrum allocation and assignment efforts make available on an
unlicensed basis radio frequency bands sufficient to meet the demand for unlicensed wireless
broadband operations if doing so are reasonable and in the public interest after taking into account
the future needs of other spectrum users.

(Sec. 18) The FCC must develop a national plan for making additional radio frequency bands available
for unlicensed operations. The NTIA must recommend reforms to the Spectrum Relocation Fund to
address federal entities sharing costs and expenditures under the plan.

Spectrum Challenge Prize Act

(Sec. 19) The NTIA must conduct prize competitions to accelerate the development and
commercialization of technology that improves spectrum efficiency and is capable of cost-effective
deployment.

Not more than $5 million, in the aggregate, may be awarded to prize competition winners.

The FCC must publish a technical paper providing criteria that may be used for the design of such
competitions.

Wireless Telecommunications Tax and Fee Collection Fairness Act

(Sec. 20) State and local jurisdictions are prohibited from requiring a person to collect from, or remit
on behalf of, any other person a state or local tax, fee, or surcharge imposed on the purchase or use of
any wireless telecommunications service within the state unless the collection or remittance is in
connection with a financial transaction in which the purchaser or user upon whom a tax, fee, or
a surcharge is imposed gives cash, credit, or any other exchange of monetary value or consideration to
the person who is required to collect or remit the tax, fee, or surcharge. Any person who is aggrieved
a violation of such prohibition may bring a civil action in the U.S. district court for equitable relief.

https://www.govtrack.us/congress/bills/115/s19

https://www.govtrack.us/congress/bills/115/s19/text

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