National Spectrum Strategy Called Potentially Helpful Next Step as 5G Launches

FCC Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel questions why the administration would cancel the Obama-era strategies in favor of something that won’t be ready until next year. A former spectrum official also questioned what will come. A lawyer who represents smaller providers said the strategy will lead to more auctions only if Trump is re-elected.

“I think the FCC is reacting to this wave of need for 5G and that’s super important,” said T-Mobile Chief Technology Officer Neville Ray in an interview. “The FCC is working really hard to open up new spectrum opportunities.” Much remains to be done, Ray said. “We are assembling the starter kit almost for 5G, but if you think about the 10 years, there are a lot of pieces and elements … that we need to pull together.”

Sharing will be important to carriers, starting with the 3.5 GHz citizens broadband radio service band, Ray said. “That’s probably the largest sharing approach that’s been worked through,” he said. “We’re very engaged there. We have to go make sure that the software and the quality and capability is fully developed.” Ray said T-Mobile is interested in CBRS licensed and unlicensed tiers.

5G Americas has been talking about key ingredients for 5G -- spectrum in every range and the ability to site small cells, said President Chris Pearson. “We’ve made progress in the United States,” he said. “We’re a leader in millimeter-wave allocation and deployment. We’re starting with the FCC decision on cell siting. ... We need to continue to make progress.” Finding more mid-band spectrum is especially important, he said.

Pearson is encouraged NTIA is looking at 3450-3550 MHz and the FCC is eyeing the 3.7-4.2 GHz C-band. “If you look at our industry and how much people are using their smartphones and tablets and laptops to be connected, there’s an insatiable demand,” he said. Government has made progress, but industry needs more licensed spectrum, he said. Fifth-generation wireless is “going to be successful with all types of spectrum,” he said: “It’s going to be licensed, shared and unlicensed.”

The single most important thing the plan does is establish “a much more regular process for constant review by the agencies themselves on how to evaluate their spectrum needs in light of their changing missions,” said Harold Feld, senior vice president at Public Knowledge. “Generally, the process of review of federal spectrum use has been driven not by any general desire to be more efficient but by pressure to find an arbitrary amount of spectrum to auction.” Congress has taken no interest in spectrum needs of the federal government, or in systemic ways to promote efficient federal use, he said. “Done properly, a National Spectrum Strategy could provide a real road map for Congress in terms of financing technologies to enhance efficient spectrum use or replace wireless communications with fiber or other more efficient means,” he said. “Rather than encourage agencies to protect their existing spectrum allocations.”

The U.S. has made progress since at least as far back as the National Broadband Plan, released during the first half of the Obama administration, said Georgetown Center for Business and Public Policy Project Director Larry Downes. “The plan, and the executive orders, legislation and FCC actions that followed, focused on quantity of spectrum to be freed up in the next 5-10 years, and identified several techniques,” he said. “Some worked better than others. There are still … a lot of disincentives for federal users to free up unused or underutilized frequencies they have, even when everyone agrees on what the better solution would be.” It's time to “switch from improving spectrum quantity to improving spectrum quality,” Downes said. “Before the next technology-driven crisis arrives, in other words, we need to develop a long-term national spectrum strategy, in hopes of avoiding as many future crises as possible.”

"The administration is doing exactly what it needs to do: weighing the spectrum needs of government users versus the economic benefits of allocating more bands for private sector use,” said former FCC Commissioner Robert McDowell. The timing is right, he said. “The FCC has teed up its next round of auctions with 28 GHz and 24 GHz at the front of the line. But more spectrum is needed in the pipeline to fuel 5G, the IoT, new satellite and space-related technologies.” The timing could also be right on Capitol Hill, McDowell said. The spectrum plan “will be rolled out in the middle of a new, and possibly divided, Congress that may be looking for bipartisan legislation,” which historically has included spectrum bills, he said.

“It’s useful to periodically review strategic spectrum needs to account for changes,” said Fred Campbell, director of Tech Knowledge. “Though previous administrations have undertaken similar reviews, the establishment of a spectrum task force with government representatives from multiple offices is new and should be beneficial to federal spectrum planning.”

“Whenever issues are elevated to the presidential level, senior administration officials pay more attention, so that’s a good thing,” said Randolph May, president of the Free State Foundation. He said he hopes NTIA and the FCC will “focus even more intently on resolving long-standing proceedings in which fallow spectrum could be repurposed,” such as the 5.9 GHz and L-bands.

The strategy is “a prime opportunity to ensure that rural America and urban America both benefit" from spectrum,” said Claude Aiken, president of the Wireless ISP Association. He wants to work with the administration.