Open Wireless Internet Act
Latest action · Aug 1, 2008 Read twice and referred to the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation.
Progress
Where this bill reached, and when. A stage with no date was not reached; one that failed a vote and later carried shows the date it carried.
- IntroducedAug 1, 2008
- Passed SenateNot reached
- Passed HouseNot reached
- To the PresidentNot reached
- Became lawNot reached
Summary
Open Wireless Internet Act - Amends the Communications Act of 1934 to require the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to promote nationwide broadband competition through the use of wireless services by issuing nationwide licenses, for a term of at least 15 years, for two bands of frequencies, each composed of 20 megahertz of unpaired contiguous spectrum, one band under 3 gigahertz and not part of the recovered analog spectrum and the other band between 2155 and 2180 megahertz.
Requires the FCC to ensure that licensees of spectrum obtained under these provisions are fully protected from, and fully protect, licensees of adjacent spectrum from harmful interference, including receiver overload and excessive out-of-band emissions.
Requires licensees, among other things, to offer to consumers and authorized public safety users, without subscription, airtime, usage, or other charges, a data service that is faster than 200 kilobits per second, allows users to access any lawful content of their choice, and has an option that prevents underage users from accessing obscene or indecent material. Requires congressional approval before modification of any of these requirements takes effect.
Requires a separate rule-making or other procedures for licensing through auction additional unpaired contiguous spectrum of 20 megahertz below 3 gigahertz, but states that the auction shall be conducted without the conditions specified in the immediately preceding paragraph unless the FCC finds it is in the public interest.
Cosponsors
Members who signed on, in the order they did.
Actions 2
Everything that happened, newest first.
- Aug 1, 2008Introduced in Senate
- Aug 1, 2008Read twice and referred to the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation.
Subjects
Assigned by the Library of Congress. Policy area: Science, Technology, Communications.
Text 1
Each version as it was printed, newest first.
- Aug 1, 2008Introduced in Senate
Everything here is as published by Congress: the summary is the Congressional Research Service's, the action wording is the clerks', and the subjects are the Library of Congress's. How far it got is read from the actions themselves, taking the most recent one of each kind, so a bill that failed a vote and later passed is shown as having passed. Records come from this bill on Congress.gov and govinfo.gov.