NTIA Eyes 1675-1710 MHz Band to Pair with AWS-3 for FCC Auction
The NTIA has determined that pairing the 1755-1780 MHz band with AWS-3 spectrum for a mobile broadband auction won’t be possible, at least in a quick timeframe, based on its preliminary review, Administrator Lawrence Strickling told a Public Knowledge spectrum conference Thursday. He said the nearby 1675-1710 MHz band offers more hope (CD June 3 p1), but more must be known about how that spectrum is being used before the agency can make any recommendations.
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"We have concluded from our preliminary review of that band that there are too many agencies and assets involved to allow for a pairing with AWS-3 in the time frame the FCC has set for an auction,” Strickling said of the 1755-1780 MHz band, a prime target of carriers mentioned for possible pairing with AWS-3 spectrum in the National Broadband Plan (CD May 4 p1).
Asked by a reporter about carrier objections that the 1755-1780 MHz is far preferable for pairing with AWS-3 spectrum, Strickling shrugged his shoulders. “Record a shrug,” he said. Strickling said NTIA cannot address all of the issues presented by that band in the timeframe contemplated by the FCC for an AWS-3 auction. The band is widely used by the Department of Defense and other federal users. “That’s not to say it isn’t a candidate for eventual reallocation down the road but it’s a multi-year process,” he said. “We have too many agencies in there and all sorts of different assets in there. It’s just not something that can be dealt with quickly.”
Strickling said the 1675-1710 MHz band is still under review. “At first glance, this band looks pretty straight-forward,” he said. “There is one dominant user -- NOAA -- and two dominant uses -- radiosondes, or weather balloons, and weather satellite downlinks. The weather balloons are launched twice per day and provide airborne measurement information. The satellites send raw weather data to a relatively small number of NOAA or other government sites.” Public safety agencies, research centers, TV stations and the general public all use the data, he said. “In fact, no one knows how many people currently are receiving this weather information direct from satellites.”
But Strickling said the band can be made available only on a shared basis. “We will not relocate any of these uses in the band,” he said. “As a practical matter we couldn’t do so if we wanted because you can’t change the radio in the satellite once it’s launched into space.”
NTIA’s investigation will center on whether the spectrum can be shared with carriers and whether NOAA’s use of the band can be compressed into a small part of the band, Strickling said. “How do we answer that question?” he asked. “First, we need to know the number of ground stations that NOAA operates. Is that number appropriate or can operations be consolidated into fewer ground stations? For those ground stations that must continue to operate, what is the radius of the protection zone that must be defined to prevent interference to the ground station operations? … As we answer those and other questions, we can build a picture of where in the U.S. this spectrum could be made available for commercial mobile broadband use, carving out those areas that must be off limits to protect the ground station operations.”
Also, hundreds of satellite dishes today receive this data, Strickling noted. “Those users would definitely be affected by a reallocation,” he said. “For those users, we need to understand whether, given our modern networked world, it is possible to supply this weather data by different means than satellite downlinks in this band. Could the weather information be distributed via the Internet or over other satellite bands?"
Strickling said NTIA hopes to wrap up its look at the band in the fall and that addressing any changes that would be needed for the band to be ready for use for mobile broadband would probably take about five years. Carriers “obviously want it as fast as we can do it,” he said. “And maybe we can do that one faster. It’s still so early in the analysis it’s hard to put a firm date on it.”
Strickling warned that the U.S. can’t relocate enough existing federal users to meet the nation’s “burgeoning demand for spectrum,” particularly the FCC’s proposed goal of 500 MHz for mobile broadband in 10 years. He noted that between 300 MHz and 3.5 GHz, only 17 percent of spectrum is used exclusively by federal entities and 32 percent is used exclusively by non-federal users. The majority, 51 percent, is already shared.
"Sharing arrangements and new technical solutions are needed so that we can stretch our finite spectrum resources,” he said. “There are plenty of studies that show spectrum is not used continuously all the time or across all geographic locations, so finding technical and regulatory mechanisms to utilize the open spaces in these bands is one very promising area of innovation.” Strickling also said NTIA was still evaluating the goals in the broadband plan, with an eye on developing an administration position. He reiterated that the administration has yet to endorse the goals in the plan.
Strickling also warned that any federal audit of spectrum used by the government will provide only some information to the public. “As we work to increase transparency around federal spectrum use, keep in mind that information regarding federal operations actually belongs to the agencies themselves and they ultimately decide what is releasable, consistent with national security requirements,” he said. “Many of them are particularly concerned about the impact that releasing specific location and frequency information may have on vital communications.”