WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) delivered a speech on the Senate floor today urging the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to conduct a public auction of C-band spectrum to protect American 5G technological innovation.
The FCC is considering a closed-door private auction instead of the public auctions it typically conducts. The private auction will allow foreign companies to profit from the spectrum sale, and it will lack transparency.
Click here or the photo below to watch.
Highlights:
Monetary value of 5G: “The FCC has held over 100 auctions; they’ve brought in $123 billion. We’ve got these radio waves for 5G that the experts say are worth $60 billion, and instead of auctioning them off and letting everybody fairly compete, these three foreign corporations want the FCC to give them the airwaves and let them auction them off and the foreign companies get to keep the money.”
5G and National Security: “Our job is not to maximize profits for foreign corporations. Our job is to help our people, and this 5G has national security implications. Before we give away these 5G airwaves to a foreign corporation, we need to know who they’re going to give it to. What if they give it to China?”
5G Benefitting Rural Communities: “What I’d like to see us do, and (what) I’m encouraging the FCC to do, is to hold a public auction, take some of that $60 billion they’re going to get and use it for rural broadband to make sure that the people who live in rural areas get taken care of as well as the people who live in the cities.”
Potential of 5G technology: “Surgeons will be able to conduct surgery through the internet thousands of miles away from each other. We’ll have driverless cars … farmers, through 5G technology, will be informed well in advance when there are diseases encroaching on their crops. We won’t have to sign our name anymore; 5G will make possible what’s called personal heat signatures. It’s going to change the world.”
Keeping the spectrum auction transparent and public: “We need a level playing field. We need competition. Competition is a moral good. Everybody needs to get an equal bite at the apple. This doesn’t need to be done in a backroom swampy deal.”
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