Congress to Sell Public Airwaves to Pay Benefits

WASHINGTON — The need for revenue to partly cover the extension of the payroll tax cut and long-term unemployment benefits has pushed Congress to embrace a generational shift in the country’s media landscape: the auction of public airwaves now used for television broadcasts to create more wireless Internet systems.

If a compromise bill completed Thursday by Congress is approved as expected by this weekend, the result will eventually be faster connections for smartphones, iPads and other data-hungry mobile devices. Their explosive popularity has overwhelmed the ability, particularly in big cities, for systems to quickly download maps, video games and movies.

The measure would be a rare instance of the government compensating private companies with the proceeds from an auction of public property — broadcast licenses — once given free.

The auctions, which are projected to raise more than $25 billion, would also further the Obama administration’s broadband expansion plans and create a nationwide communications network for emergency workers that would allow police, fire and other responders from different departments and jurisdictions to talk to each other directly.

Public safety officials have wanted such a seamless communications system ever since the 9/11 terrorist attacks. The sweeping changes are even more remarkable because they resulted not from an effort to address communications policy, but from a hard-fought bipartisan compromise to extend a payroll tax holiday and jobless benefits. Republicans insisted that the extension of the unemployment insurance — a cost of roughly $30 billion — be paid for in full, and one area that both sides could agree on was spectrum sales.

The spectrum auctions are at least one to two years away, but most of the programs they pay for would be covered immediately. Consumers are unlikely to see additional charges since the auction would add new spectrum rather than adding to the costs of existing spectrum.