Administration Blows Deadline for National Spectrum Strategy
The Trump administration didn’t meet a July 22 deadline for completing its long-term National Spectrum Strategy. An Oct. 28, 2018, memo by President Donald Trump set that date for the National Economic Council director and the assistant to the president for national security affairs to submit the strategy. Two government officials told us the White House missed the deadline, but the report is essentially finished and under internal review. It's still unclear how or when it will be publicly released, one official said.
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NTIA Administrator David Redl resigned in May (see 1905090051) and observers agree his departure likely has slowed work on the strategy and on other spectrum issues. Most big recent moves on spectrum have proven difficult, including NOAA/NASA objections to the FCC auction of the 24 GHz for 5G (see 1907160067) and FCC plans to reallocate the 5.9 GHz band for unlicensed use, sharing with other users (see 1906180072).
There has been a corresponding slowdown in launching the Commerce Spectrum Management Advisory Committee. Members were announced in April, but no meeting is scheduled. A CSMAC member said that raises concerns about the broader commitment to spectrum. The White House and NTIA didn’t comment.
“There is clearly a lack of agreement between the FCC and several federal agencies on spectrum use, including use of federal spectrum and non-federal spectrum,” Public Knowledge Senior Vice President Harold Feld told us: “It's hard to know precisely how the resignation of David Redl has impacted things, especially in light of conflicting rumors over why he resigned.”
With the World Radiocommunication Conference a few months away “the U.S. needs to get its act together quickly,” Feld said: “The U.S. needs to know precisely what it wants and what its red lines are not only for the conference, but for all the advance work. The longer it takes the administration to get everyone on the same page, the more the U.S. will be at a disadvantage going into WRC.”
Senate Commerce Committee ranking member Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., told reporters Tuesday she and committee Chairman Roger Wicker, R-Miss., are giving Commerce and the FCC a temporary reprieve so the two agencies can settle their quarrel over U.S. spectrum strategy before the lawmakers follow through on plans for a hearing on the issue. Discussion about the fracas dominated a July House Communications Subcommittee on spectrum policy (see 1907160067). Wicker and other telecom-focused Hill Republicans pushed for an end to the squabble (see 1907180044).
“We said we would want to give [Commerce and the FCC] a chance to try to resolve it” by “talking to each other” behind the scenes, Cantwell said. “If they don’t, then we’re having a hearing” after Congress returns from its August recess. She didn't give a timeline for when that would happen. Cantwell began pushing in June for a hearing on NOAA's concerns about the potential effects of commercial use of spectrum on the 24 GHz band sold in the recent FCC auction on weather forecasting technology on adjacent bands. FCC Chairman Ajit Pai disputed NOAA's claims and said they were part of a pattern of Commerce efforts to hinder efforts to free up spectrum for 5G, during a June Senate Commerce hearing (see 1906120076).
“I’m sure the spectrum strategy work continues at the affected agencies, but missing a deadline is not a good look considering how long it takes to act on spectrum policy recommendations,” said Brent Skorup of the Mercatus Center. Redl’s absence is probably “a factor" in any delays, he said: “Not only did NTIA lose its appointed head, the agency lost someone with extensive knowledge of telecom policy and spectrum politics.”
R Street Tech Policy Manager Tom Struble said he was encouraged when Trump proposed the strategy. “A lot has happened since then, and not all of it has been good,” Struble said. Redl’s abrupt departure “was probably the most concerning development, but the interagency squabbling between FCC and NOAA/NASA on 24 GHz has also been very disheartening,” he said. Other concerns include the role played by Commerce Deputy Chief of Staff and Policy Director Earl Comstock (see 1907180044), Struble said: “I strongly suspect that conflict of visions was behind Redl's departure, and I suspect it's also why the administration failed to meet the July 22 deadline.”
“It’s likely, if not a near certainty, that a change in the NTIA leadership impacted the preparation of the report,” said Free State Foundation President Randolph May. “What the strategy says is as important as the timing. In light of the recent controversies involving last-minute midnight hour conflicts asserted by government users for bands targeted for repurposing, the report ought to address mechanisms for addressing those conflicts in a way that does not pose unnecessary hurdles to repurposing spectrum in a timely fashion for use by private sector companies that are ready to put the spectrum to good use.”
“In the absence of White House coordination, the outcome has been unprecedented conflict with the FCC, as the Department of Commerce, NOAA and other agencies are emboldened to assert their parochial concerns over the broader national interest,” said Michael Calabrese, director of the Wireless Future Program at New America.
Recon Analytics’ Roger Entner advised against reading too much into the missed deadline. Entner said Redl’s departure probably slowed things.