community of internet users and our partnerships with ietf, engineering society and all the other players in the system. we have a very humble role to play so it's a small little role and we have to do our best to be a fair meeting place and to let the internet name and numbers space of all. >> host: and finally mr. beckstrom, are you familiar with icann watchdog work that reports on what icann does and does not necessarily positively? >> guest: we have a lot of critics inside and outside in that part of what makes any multi-stakeholder process fair and open. >> host: and there's some traffic on icann watch about what happened in some constitutionality concerns and some sovereignty concerns. how do you address those? >> guest: first, i'm not a lawyer all acclaim that. i'm a business guy, technology guy, government policy. i'm not an attorney. there are some subtle legal issues that some parties and try to represent their concern about sovereignty. on the other hand, the proponents of art community is absolutely delighted over outcome on october 1 including thousands of attorneys around the world who think it's a terrific thing. so i think i may have been written by someone who is very articulate and intelligent critic and watch good someone who has contributed a lot. i think we need to consider that issue but by and large the world has spoken in the world is very pleased with the affirmation of commitment. and even more countries are coming to the table to engage. so we view it as positive but there always be criticism enough the great dane. >> host: rod beckstrom is president of the internet corporation for assigned names and numbers. chris rhoades is a reporter with the "washington. gentleman, thank you. >> american icons, three original documentaries from c's are now available on dvd. a unique journey through the iconic columns of the three branches of american government. see the exquisite detail of the supreme court. go beyond the velvet rope so private tours of the white house, america's most famous home. and explore the history, art, and architecture of the capital. american icon, a three disc dvd set. it's $24.95 plus shipping and handling. one of the many items available at c-span.org/. >> now the use of wireless technology and consumer demand for personal wireless devices. we begin with remarks from chair congressman rick boucher. this is two hours ten minutes. some >> subcommittee will come to order. this morning the subcommittee convened a legislative hearing on two measures related to the availability of the wireless spectrum, which is a central to meeting our future needs for mobile communication services. the movement of personal communications to mobile service says is both dramatic and accelerating. earlier this year it was announced that for the first time the number of homes have been only a cell phone and no landline service now exceeds the number of homes having only a landline and no cellular service. at the end of 2008, there were approximately 270 million wireless subscribers in the nation including an estimated 40 million at the abusers of mobile internet services. daily new attract is an useful applications are added to wireless service says and data rate continued to increase as consumers require faster access to mobile communications. as more and more americans use data intensive smart phones and services like mobile video urged the demand for spectrum to support these applications and devices. we'll continue to grow dramatically. today the subcommittee continues its examination of possible ways in which federal communications policy can be altered in order to meet these challenges with the goal of enhancing the consumer experience and facilitating the future growth of local services. in july, i was pleased to join with chairman waxman, full committee ranking member barton and subcommittee ranking member stearns and introducing h.r. 3125, the radio spectrum inventory act. that measure now before the subcommittee would direct the end tia -- ntia and the fcc to look up the spectrum and develop an inventory of each spectrum been in the allocations between 225 megahertz and ten gigahertz. the inventory would include the identity of both federal and nonfederal users have spent term and the types of services they offer at each spectrum band as well as the amount of views in each band on a geographic basis. when the inventory is completed, the ntia and the fcc would create a website in order to make the information gleaned from the inventory available to the public. they would report the results of the inventory to the congress and that report would include a description of information that could not be made publicly available for national security reasons. it would also include a recommendation of which if any of the least utilized lock suspect turned should be reallocated for commercial uses. the creation of the inventory is an essential staff in making available more spectrum for commercial and wireless services and meeting the extraordinary step of demands that our nation will soon face. i also joined our colleagues j. inslee and fred upton and introducing the spectrum relocation improvement act. this measure would address an urgent need, which was brought to light after the fcc auctioned the advanced wireless spectrum, the aws spectrum in 2006. while that spectrum is auctioned more than three years ago. the winners of the commercial licenses still do not have full access to the spectrum because it's not been fully cleared by the government users. the bill that we have jointly introduced would hasten the process of clearing federal users from spec drum that the government has reallocated for commercial purposes. it would require the ntia to publish a transition plan of each federal entity to be relocated after a spec term auction and it would clarify the steps that federal spectrum users must take. in order to receive payment for their relocation cost from the spectrum relocation fund, including the requirement that the spectrum fully be reallocated in vacated by the federal users within one year. my goal is to have both the inventory legislation and the bill speeding the reallocation of previously auctioned government spectrum through the committee and through the house at the earliest possible time. i want to thank our witnesses for joining us this morning. we look forward to your testimony and your views on the future demand for wireless spec terms in the ways in which we can take constructive steps to meet these challenges. that concludes my opening statement. i'm pleased now to recognize the ranking republican member of our subcommittee, the gentleman florida, mr. stearns. >> good morning and thank you, mr. chairman. you've mentioned both these bills and talked about what they do. so we're very pleased pleased to have this hearing. i'm a cosponsor of both of these bills, the original cosponsor. it is clear the united states would need additional spectrum to be the growing demand for wireless broadband. in fact, we may be victims of our own success here. the united states currently lead the world in wireless, wireless providers have you spectrum to cut u.s. consumers, innovative voice and data services, the number of mobile voice customers in the united states has surpassed the number of wireline customers. and the number of mobile broadband customers has increased exponentially over the past several years. as customers increase the amount of time they spend on their mobile devices talking, e-mailing, and surfing the internet, cell sites become constrained work capacity. as a result, providers need more spectrum, especially in order to create or broadband services. we are facing in the words of the fcc chairman, a looming spectrum crisis. for example, a voice call requires approximately 10,000 bits per second, while uploading and downloading video downloading, video requires millions of bits per second. countries will need 1.3 or 1,300,000 megahertz of spectrum dedicated for commercial use by the year 2015 according to the international telecommunications union. yet the united states currently has only 500 megahertz allocated and only 50 megahertz in the auction pipeline. so, in order to increase the amount of spectrum available for mobile services the administration and the fcc need to inventory the current uses of spectrum bands. especially those below three gigahertz that are ideal for mobile services. the bottom line is that we need to know who uses which spectrum bands and the purposes for which they used such bans. once we have the answers to these questions, the government needs to decide whether to reallocate spec ram or commercial mobile users. if the government is requiring spectrum users to vacate reallocated band, the government also needs to establish a meaningful process for reallocated incumbent users. the process needs to begin the sooner rather than later. inventory reallocation and to reallocation all take time and commercial mobile demand for spectrum is increasing as i mentioned exponentially. furthermore, one rate to make more spectrum available for commercial purposes is to use government spectrum more efficiently and simply reallocate the spectrum saved. that was the idea behind the commercial spectrum enhancement act, which was enacted in 2004. the laws designed to provide funding to upgrade the wireless resources of government agencies while clearing additional spectrum for commercial use. while the cs ba government frequencies identified for reallocation or option two commercial licensees and the proceeds are used to improve the relocating agencies of wireless facilities. pursuant to did csta and the fcc held the advanced wireless service one auction in 2006. of the 13.7 billion braised by the aws auction, approximately 1 billion has been spent to reallocate the 12 federal agencies. the reallocation procedures outlined in the csta works well in most cases. but some problems have cropped up. for example, t-mobile paid 4.2 billion to build a free network. the department of defense and drug enforcement agencies are behind scheduling and clearing some of the spec room. however, because of unforeseen costs, the complexities in their moves which have been compounded by the confidential nature from the agency's activities, problems like these have created the batters of their investment in the time frames originally promised and may discourage participation in future reallocation auctions. h.r. 3019 won't make the process more efficient. the goal is to better coordinate reallocation so prospective bidders have increased confidence to bid on the cleared spec term. this not only helps the commercial bidders but also the reallocating agencies, since they will have increased from the auction and a better plan transition. thank you, mr. chairman for holding this hearing. i look for it to hearing from witnesses. >> thank you very much, mr. stearns. the gentleman from california, mr. waxman, is recognized for five minutes. do not thank you, mr. chaiman, i want to hold thank you for holding this legislation onto bills that it adopted will create incentives for spectrum utilization and enhance our ability to develop forward-looking turn into policies. developments in wireless broadband technology along with increased consumer demand have raised questions about the sufficiency of current spectrum allocations for wireless communication services. some experts estimate that the wireless industry in the u.s. needs an additional 150 megahertz of spectrum to simply keep up with the explosion and wireless data usage and to remain competitive with other nations. before we can start identifying bands of spectrum that might he made available for these new services, however, we need to understand how existing spectrum is allocated and utilized in simple terms we need better information about spectrum usage by federal and nonfederal entities. accordingly, in july of this era of bipartisan group of 18 energy of commerce committee members introduced h.r. 3125, the radio spectrum inventory act. this legislation represents a critical first step in developing a forward-looking spectrum policy. h.r. 3125 is simply about making spectrum you sent allocation transparent. it would develop a national telecommunications information administration and the federal communications commission to develop a publicly available inventory of users and usage and the most valuable spectrum vans. the bill also directs the agencies to examine whether there is underutilized spectrum that might be reallocated for more efficient uses. of course, any comprehensive look at spectrum must be sensitive to military uses and the need to protect the information about such uses. the bill therefore establishes a procedure by which information pertaining to national security will continue to be safeguarded. the community will continue to work with the department of defense to make sure we are sensitive to any concerns regarding our national defense. i would also like to express my general support for h.r. 3019, the spectrum relocation act of 2009 i commend representatives inslee and upped in for authorizing us to approve the current spectrum relocation process. by increasing the flow of information of resources as well as enhancing transparency. thank you again, mr. chairman for holding this hearing. i look forward to working with you to move these important bills forward. >> thank you very much, mr. waxman. mr. shimkus is recognized for two minutes. >> thank you, mr. chairman. i would say that we need to be working on d. block, d. box, d. block. if we can't get the d. block right power mac are we going to get other allocations of other spectrums? and my focus on the d. block as everyone knows been involved with the caucuses, emergency services and communication and hopefully my colleague, anna, will show. and even jane harman and will say shame on us if we have a next disaster and were not ready to communicate affect or delay. shame on us if we have another 9/11. shame on us if we have another katrina and we have sheriff departments not talking to firefighters to be a firefighter not talking to the national guard. so i appreciate this focus and we all understand the importance of having an inventory. but if we can't get the d. block right in a timely manner, who are we kidding ourselves? so i would hope, mr. chairman, and the full committee chairman that we would really work on the parameters to push for appropriate and proper auction in which we get all the benefits, bring in the additional revenue, but we also developed the revenue stream which will allow us to provide grant and money to our first responders to get to one important aspect of our homeland security issues and debates in line. i yield back my time. >> thank you very much mr. shimkus. the chairman emeritus of the full liberty and commerce committee chairman mr. dingell is recognized for five minutes. >> thank you, mr. chairman and thank you for convening today's conference on h.r. 3125 the spectrum act. and h.r. 3019 the act of 2009. these two bills and which i am the original cosponsor will aid the federal administration allocation of spec term commodity of increasing the importance especially given recent advances in mobile broadband services. like all the rest of us i am concerned about the allocation about the future and also about what we have done so far and whether it has contributed to the proper use of the spectrum for the future and for all of our people. these two pieces of legislation are complementary to the federal communications duty to present to the congress a national broad and plan as mandated under the american reinvestment and recovery act. to be certain, the success of the development of such a plan in the implementation of its recommendations will be facilitated in no means agree by a clear and better understanding of the spectrum available for use and a better and more efficient process by which to allocated for commercial use. this i believe will be accomplished in large part by enactment of the bill spending, the committee's consideration today. with this in mind, i welcome our witnesses and look forward to hearing their views on the legislation before us. in particular, i hope you'll engage in a frank discussion about the relationship between h.r. 3125, h.r. 3019, and proposals currently circulating the fcc to reallocate spec spectrum of broadcasters to global communication providers as a part of the national broadband plan. thank you for your courtesy, mr. chairman and i commend you again for this hearing and the foresight that you're showing with it. i yield back the balance of my time. >> thank you very much chairman dingell. the gentleman for oregon mr. walton is recognized for two minutes. >> thank you for holding a legislative hearing on these two bills. i think that's important in improvement of our process to have this oversight before we mark up. i want to welcome my senator mr. smith was taken to broadcasters and i am still his congressman even if you do not know my senator. but we've been friends and colleagues in the legislative arena and in oregon for many years. we welcome you at the n.a.b. and now that i've sold our broadcast stations and you gone to the broadcasters i'm going to go into p. pack in. [laughter] i want to point out a couple of things. first of all, concur with my colleague for mr. shimkus about the d. block issue. i also want to point out another issue that's come up related to a public safety and i'm not sure it's going to get spoken to today. and that his use of the banned by amateur operators as we evaluate the value of spec term. understand that when 9/11 happened, when katrina happened from another committee kitchen systems would fail and even any day when there's a hurricane or a disaster anywhere in the world it is for him at the amateur radio operators who stepped to the fore with their own equipment and provide the emergency communication when everything else fails. it's hard to put a value on not unless you put a value on saving lives. and helping our law enforcement community and our rescue community get through really difficult times. so they're there when needed all the time and so that needs to be a part of what we consider. regarding the fcc's notice, i'm very concerned about what i'm reading and regarding professor benjamin's comments and his paper he is now a very top adviser to the chairman of the fcc. and i hope this committee will look at some of the things he has had to say, including however dollar but additional cost for broadcaster is one less dollar for profit and reduces the attractiveness of the broadcasting of the business model. for regulation to intense broadcasting place on the spectrum and regulation will not help free up spectrum and should be avoided. in other words, he's calling for the death of over the air for broadcasting, which i think is a real abomination and will get into that war. i know my time has expired, mr. chairman, and i look for to hearing from our witnesses. >> thank you very much, mr. walden and the turn arrested may 5th mr. doyle for two minutes. >> thank you for holding this important hearing on going to wait opening statement and look forward to hearing from the witnesses. >> thank you i'm a mr. doyle. we will add two minutes to your question time of the witnesses. the gentleman mr. ensley is recognized for two minutes. >> thank you, mr. chaiman and in my state as we speak i've got hundreds of not thousands of constituents designing these new internet broadband services in the next generation is important to a lot of my neighbors to whom i represent. it's important to the country as a whole for job creation possibilities. president obama has recognized broadband infrastructure as a tremendous job potential. but we know we'll have to h