Ian Adams on the 5.9 GHz Order
Communications Daily – ICLE Executive Director Ian Adams was quoted by Communications Daily in a story about the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit’s hearing on the Federal Communications Commission’s 5.9 GHz order. You can read full story (behind a subscriber firewall) here.
“To the extent the FCC has a vulnerability in this matter, it stems from the broader balance consistently struck between the interests of spectrum coordination and sector-specific regulation,” said Ian Adams, International Center for Law & Economics executive director: “There’s a specific statute in question, and that statute directs the FCC to consider allocating spectrum for ITS purposes. In contrast, it limits the DOT’s role to an explicitly advisory capacity.”
“In spite of the statute’s plain meaning, [ITS America] and the other plaintiffs in this case have up-jumped the narrow remit of the DOT’s explicit statutory charge in a manner that would effectively create a nonexpert veto in all spectrum proceedings implicating federal agencies,” Adams said. Appellants didn’t comment Friday.