Government says sacrifice needed for 3G

SANTA CLARA - The U.S. government is through playing games over third-generation (3G) wireless networks.

Reiterating comments made last week by President Bill Clinton, Norman Mineta, secretary of the U.S. Department of Commerce, said Tuesday that the government is serious about promoting next generation wireless technology and that it may require those already occupying valuable spectrum space to make sacrifices in the coming months.

Mineta, speaking at a conference here put on by the Cellular Telecommunication Industry Association, said he expects both the private and public sectors to make fiscal concessions in order to keep the U.S. up to date in the wireless race currently dominated by Europe and Asia.

"If we are not on the cutting edge in terms of the future, we are going to lose it to our competitors," he said. "As an American, of course, I don't want to see that happen."

The U.S. Department of Defense and some operators of UHF television stations currently occupy some of the space in the 700-MHz spectrum band considered most suitable for the high-speed voice, data, and video services that 3G promises to make possible.

"There is always going to be someone who thinks they have squatter's rights," Mineta said. "Maybe we are the ones who are going to have to eat that cost to move the folks over to a new frequency. Maybe the industry will have to say there is a piece that I will have to eat myself. Maybe there is going to have to be some kind of cost-sharing program."

Late last week, President Clinton set a timeline for the government and the private sector to create an agenda for allocating spectrum for 3G networks. Both the president and Mineta said sacrifices will have to be made to insure that the deployment of 3G technology occurs in a fair manner.

Mineta echoed many of the opinions expressed by Clinton, and said it took the president's executive clout to get the project rolling.

"We are dealing with other federal agencies, and frankly we need the presence of the chief executive of our country in that discussion," Mineta said."The president is going to have to say to them after all this discussion that that is the way it is going to have to be."