Growing Spectrum Need Said to Force Increased Sharing by Military, Commercial Users
ANNAPOLIS -- As spectrum needs grow, commercial and military users must find ways to share available spectrum, speakers said at a DoD spectrum summit here. “The demand for spectrum is absolutely tremendous, because it’s the key to development… and to countries being successfully competitive,” said Freedom Technologies Pres. Janice Obuchowski.
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“We've seen intersection of non-commercial and commercial spectrum use in Iraq,” said NTIA Office of Policy Analysis & Development Joe Gattuso. “We had military contact us and ask to get better cellphone coverage. We have to think beyond traditional boundaries,” he said. “Military actually uses commercial spectrum.” Gattuso emphasized the extent to which commercial spectrum figures in military operations in Iraq.
“It goes back to what we do domestically, which is trying to figure out how to approach [spectrum use] so military get spectrum they need and consumers get spectrum they need,” he said. “As we enter the world when technology makes more sharing possible how do you use these changes to have a better use of spectrum?”
But Nadershah Arian, head of the Spectrum Management Dept. at Afghanistan’s Communications Ministry, said in his nation separating military spectrum from commercial has proven “the best way to solve problems” and avoid interference, at least based on Afghani experience. He said an agreement for separation of military and civilian frequencies signed in Jan. by the Afghan Ministry of Communications, Combined Forces Command and International Security Assistance Force was “very successful.” The agreement identified a shared band, use of which is being coordinated, he said. “We have regular monthly meetings for frequency coordination” in the shared band and to resolve issues arising with respect to separate bands’ use, Arian said. Arian said that approach benefitted Afghanistan, but “I can’t compare this to the United States.”
Better global communications coordination is needed in emergencies, and the United Nations (UN) is “interested in improving” that coordination, said UN Foundation Senior Dir.-Technology Partnerships Paul Margie. Coordination problems between the U.S. govt. and NGOs marked the tsunami recovery effort, said Obuchowski, who moderated the session.
“There are some improvements that can be made in communications coordination and interoperability and we [UN Foundation-Vodafone Partnership] are going to try to help them,” Margie said: “When you are dealing with different bodies, you can find different communications systems,” which complicates coordination.
“We want to give the UN the tools to implement their” solutions to improve communications coordination, “like helping build a better mechanism so that the industry and the UN system can interact,” Margie told us. For example, he said, “Ericsson has a very interesting system, Ericsson Response, which provides technical assistance to the World Food Program. Other industries are interested in [providing solutions] before an emergency happens rather than after.”
NTIA’s Kathy Handley said the U.S. should “watch closely the outcome” of the World Summit on Information Society (WSIS) starting Nov. 14 in Tunisia. “Progress made at WSIS may have an impact on the budget and the forthcoming work at ITU,” she said. “Some countries would like to see the ITU taking a stronger role on the Internet and that would have an impact on the ITU, because that’s not something they do right now,” Handley said. Given ITU’s budget problems, new duties are “something that will be looked at,” she said. “We are trying very hard to work with all the folks that are involved but the discussions have been fairly contentious and it’s a difficult subject,” she said: “The U.S. position is that we are not intending to give up our historical role as stewards of the Internet, but we are willing” to discuss issues raised by other countries and “hope to come to some understanding on how to handle those issues.”
Govt. should dedicate financial resources stakeholders can use to prepare for world radio conferences (WRCs), said Industry Canada Dir.-EMC Analysis & Consultation Jean-Claude Brien. In Canada, he said “resources come from our spectrum management group and from the participants.” Brien said WRC stakeholders need to “coordinate approaches” and “exchange ideas” during the preparatory process. “The government should have increased awareness of the ITU work in a day-to-day operation,” Brien said.