Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.) has scheduled a hearing on the implementation of his MOBILE NOW Act.

The hearing, titled appropriately enough “The Evolution of Next-Generation Technologies: Implementing MOBILE NOW,” will be Dec. 5 at 10 a.m. 

The hearing will examine the implementation of several mandates required by the Making Opportunities for Broadband Investment and Limiting Excessive and Needless Obstacles to Wireless Act (MOBILE NOW). Witnesses will discuss MOBILE NOW’s spectrum provisions and the streamlining of broadband infrastructure on federal lands, among other things. 

Witnesses for the hearing are Paul TenHaken, mayor, Sioux Falls, S. D.; Jonathan Adelstein, president, Wireless Infrastructure Association (and former FCC commissioner); Scott Bergmann, senior vice president, regulatory affairs, CTIA—The Wireless Association ; Mary Brown, senior director, technology and spectrum policy, Cisco; and Sarah Morris, director, Open Technology Institute, New America. 

The MOBILE NOW Act makes sure that the FCC makes mid-band spectrum available for commercial use by 2020. It both promotes making more next-gen 5G wireless spectrum available and reduces obstacles to building out networks. 

The witnesses are being asked to talk about spectrum provisions in the bill and streamlining infrastructure buildouts on federal lands.

The effort by Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.) to pass the Mobile Now Act by unanimous consent (UC), or at least to make the senator blocking it own that process, has been postponed.

There is a hold on the bill -- it takes only one senator to place a hold -- and by making the UC request, the member, or at least a member, would have to stand up and object to passage to continue the hold.

Thune had planned to take the floor Wednesday (Sept. 21) and call for that vote, but his office said the request was postponed.

The Mobile Now Act would take numerous steps to boost wireless broadband, including licensed and unlicensed. It passed unanimously out of the Senate Commerce Committee in March loaded with amendments on everything from shot-clocks for approving facilities to dig-once policies for combining road projects and telecom plant, to a contest offering up to $5 million for the first person to come up with a way to boost spectrum efficiency.

The bipartisan bill, which specifically targets the buildout of 5G mobile broadband, was the result of months of negotiations.

“The committee’s advancement of the Mobile Now Act was truly a bipartisan effort,” Thune said following the markup. “Enactment of this legislation will pave the way to a 5G future where Americans have access to ultra-fast, next-generation wireless technology.”

Included in the bill was an amendment backed by, among others, wireless broadband spectrum fan Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) that would ensure at least 100 MHz of the spectrum being freed up would go for unlicensed use and another 100 MHz for commercial mobile service, with a handwritten addition to the amendment saying that commercial use was "subject to the [FCC's] regulatory purview to implement exclusive licensing in a flexible manner, including consideration of continued use of such spectrum by incumbent federal or non-federal entities in designated geographic areas indefinitely."

Among the reasons for the tough negotiations on the bill were the tensions between licensed and unlicensed, as well as commercial and incumbent government users of the spectrum. Ranking member Sen. Bill Nelson (D-Fla.) said he thought the bill had struck the right balance among those.

Not included in the bill was a last-minute amendment that would have helped broadcasters in the post-incentive auction repack and an FCC process reform bill amendment from Sen. Den Heller.

Also not included was a bill, introduced by a bipartisan group of senators, that would direct the FCC to identify the spectrum requirements for the growing Internet of things (IoT) and study the impacts of connected technologies

The Senate Commerce Committee has scheduled a March 3 mark-up for the Mobile Now (Making Opportunities for Broadband Investment and Limiting Excessive and Needless Obstacles to Wireless) Act.

Senate Commerce Committee chairman John Thune (R-S.D.) and ranking member Bill Nelson (D-Fla.) two weeks ago introduced the bill. 

A committee mark-up is an executive session at which bills are debated, amended and, if all goes well, approved for consideration by, in this case, the full Senate.

Among the bill highlights are: (1) making a statutory mandate the President's 2010 executive order that the government make 500 MHz of federal spectrum available for private use by 2020; (2) speeding up the placement of wireless structures on federal property; (3) assessing spectrum in the 3 GHz and millimeter wave bands -- mostly in the millimeter wave bands -- for the feasibility of authorizing licensed or unlicensed broadband services, and if feasible which is best suited; (4) encouraging "dig once" policies that place broadband conduit when below-ground projects like highway constructions are undertaken; (5) creating a central online inventory of federal government assets available for private-sector broadband deployment; (6) requiring the Commerce Department to issue a report within 18 months on what other legislative or regulatory levers could be moved to push federal entities to relinquish or share spectrum; and (7) allowing spectrum relocation fund balances to be transferred to agencies for transition efforts immediately after an auction rather than after actual receipt of the funds.

The bill has been in the works for a while, but was pulled from a Nov. 18 markup because committee members, notably Democrats but also Republicans, had not gotten sufficient notice and were not ready to amend and vote out the bill.

Apparently it is now ready for prime committee time.