Subject: [NEXTEL-1] Northpoint gets friendly hearing by Senate subcommittee

From: [email-masked]
Date: Fri, 23 May 2003 15:00:46 -0400

Northpoint gets friendly hearing by Senate subcommittee
By Heather Forsgren Weaver 
May 23 13:18:00, 2003

WASHINGTON-Northpoint Technology Ltd. is again pushing its plan to offer wireless broadband using
digital broadcast satellite spectrum, and it has received some powerful support on Capitol Hill in
the form of a positive hearing by the Senate communications subcommittee.

"We support [the Emergency Communications and Competition Act] because it ensures that terrestrial
operators, like Northpoint and any other qualified applicant, will be licensed in the same manner as
satellite companies who share the same spectrum," said Antoinette Cook Bush, Northpoint executive
vice president.

Bush testified before a friendly Senate communications subcommittee on Thursday. At the hearing,
Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.), the sponsor of the bill, also spoke in favor of the bill, which has 16
co-sponsors.

The most powerful support came from Sen. Ted Stevens (R-Alaska), chairman of the Senate
Appropriations Committee, who said he thought he had fixed the Northpoint problem in 1999. "I
understand you have a bill before you that would do what we thought we were doing in 1999," said
Stevens.

Instead the Federal Communications Commission interpreted the Stevens 1999 language to require
Northpoint to participate in auctions even though others in the band got their licenses through a
beauty contest.
The wireless industry has opposed Northpoint's efforts because it complains it had to participate in
auctions to receive spectrum for services similar to what Northpoint is proposing.

Wireless industry officials did not appear at the hearing; rather the Satellite Broadcasting and
Communications Association led the opposition to Northpoint.

While Northpoint has a patented technology it believes will allow it to build a land-based network
in the satellite band without causing interference to satellite services, SBCA President Andrew
Wright disagreed. After the FCC said earlier this year that Northpoint could compete at auction to
build a land-based service in the DBS band, SBCA appealed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the
District of Columbia Circuit. Wright believes the D.C. Circuit will hear the case in the fall.

http://rcrnews.com/cgi-bin/news.pl?newsId=13620

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