Restoring FCC Auction Authority Important to Competition: Neuberger

The White House “deeply believes” it’s critical that Congress restore FCC auction authority, Anne Neuberger, deputy national security adviser-cyber and emerging technology, said Thursday during a CES event. “Think about how much making spectrum available has enabled innovation,” she said: “That’s something that we’re working on closely with the Hill, and it’s an area that we know needs to be addressed.”

The day after FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr slammed the administration’s national spectrum strategy at CES (see 2401100061), Neuberger said the White House is fully committed to it.

President Joe Biden’s goal “is ensuring that Americans and American companies have access to the most advanced wireless technologies in the world,” Neuberger said. A walk around the CES show floor illustrates the importance of connected products, she said. “The challenge we have is that spectrum is already congested -- think about the number of times that our calls drop,” she said.

CTA believes the strategy “provides the critical blueprints for the U.S. to maintain wireless leadership,” said David Grossman, CTA vice president-regulatory affairs, who appeared on the program with Neuberger.

“There’s no silver bullet” available for U.S. leadership on wireless “so we’re taking multiple key steps,” Neuberger said. Staying competitive will require dynamic sharing pilots “to actually test and see how we operate together in a given spectrum space,” she said.

Improved coordination between the government and the private sector is important and is happening, Neuberger said. Maintaining a U.S. edge also requires using existing tools, like financing from the U.S. Export-Import Bank, to support 5G in other countries allied with the U.S., she said. Moreover, the administration is “keeping an eye on the future,” which means meeting with nations like India on 6G and advanced telecom, she said.

Neuberger said work is progressing on a cyber trust mark program for smart devices (see 2311130034) with a goal of launching by year-end. “It’s really moving along very well,” she said. Neuberger noted that she was at a CES booth when someone showed her a device and expressed hope that the mark would appear on the product in another year, next to the EnergyStar label.

The U.S. is also coordinating with the EU on a “joint road map” as part of the program, Neuberger said. Companies need to know that when they meet the standard “they can sell anywhere -- they can sell in Paris, Texas, or Paris, France,” she said.

Merger Policy

Experts disagreed sharply on the trajectory of U.S. merger policy (see [2401040060) during a CES panel discussion.

We've had three years of a “more proactive, aggressive FTC,” said Michael Petricone, CTA senior vice president-government affairs. “The commission has been extremely forward about taking on leading tech companies and blocking mergers in and out of tech, but has also lost a number of major cases,” he said.

“As we navigate this new digital frontier, the importance of fostering a competitive and dynamic marketplace cannot be overstated,” he added.

The DOJ has also been more aggressive under Biden, said Charlotte Slaiman, Public Knowledge vice president. The group supports the more aggressive stance of both agencies, she said. Over the past 40 years, antitrust law was “narrowed as a purposeful effort,” she said. The law “was no longer doing its job,” she said. Both agencies need help from Congress to strengthen the laws, she said. “The FTC and DOJ are doing what they can with the tools that they have.”

Most House Republicans believe that current laws covering tech are sufficient, said Tyler Grimm, chief counsel-policy and strategy at the House Judiciary Committee. About 20% of Republicans and 80% of Democrats believe “we need major changes in the law,” he said: “I think that that’s misguided.”

The courts “are doing a great job pushing back against some of the more … creative theories of harm that we’ve been hearing from some of these agencies,” said Jennifer Huddleston, Cato Institute technology policy research fellow. The courts have rejected “more subjective attempts at predicting what might happen in the market or predicting theoretical harms,” she said. Competition policy should focus on how competition benefits consumers and not competitors, she said.

Policymakers should be concerned when companies abandon deals, which are important to businesses of all sizes, Huddleston said. Companies need exit strategies and, in some cases, that's having other businesses acquire them, she said.

Companies are abandoning proposed transactions because of the uncertainty and costs, said Karen Kerrigan, president of the Small Business & Entrepreneurship Council. “I would give the FTC a D, which, I think, is very generous,” she said. The FTC isn’t hearing startups and small businesses, she said. The FTC declined comment.