CSMAC Members Hope NTIA Follows Up on Report on Spectrum Regulation

Congress would have to approve any major structural changes, noted subcommittee co-chair Mary Brown, Cisco senior director-technology and spectrum policy. The subcommittee asked NTIA for guidance on next steps. The report was supposed to be based on the Trump administration’s spectrum strategy, but NTIA officials warned subcommittee leaders in June the strategy wouldn’t be available before they completed their work (see 2006160055). CSMAC members hope work continues with a follow-up report.

“This was a very useful exercise,” said Michael Calabrese, director of the Wireless Future Program at New America. “Although we probably can’t contribute a whole lot more with respect to major changes that require legislation, we could go a lot deeper and contribute quite a bit more in regard to non-statutory reform options.”

“Incentives” for spectrum sharing “really, really matter,” said Dale Hatfield, Flatirons Center executive fellow. “If you don’t change the incentives, I don’t think you get very far. There’s still going to be an awful lot of tension between commercial” and critical government operations, he said: “You need to continue to focus on the incentive issues.”

“I couldn’t agree more,” Brown responded: “We never got to the part of the conversation where we sort of evaluated whether specific ideas would … yield a better result or outcome relative to today’s structure,” she said: “Even in the absence of a national spectrum strategy, it’s a useful conversation.”

Dennis Roberson of Roberson and Associates asked why the report doesn’t delve more into one possible solution, an R&D “function” jointly owned and co-managed by the FCC and the NTIA. Brown said the final report says if institutional change doesn’t happen, the two agencies could work out an agreement on better research coordination.

Charles Cooper, associate administrator of the NTIA Office of Spectrum Management, defended NTIA’s report on the 3.1-3.55 GHz band (see 2007070062), criticized by FCC Commissioner Mike O’Rielly (see 2007080015). “We want to be careful in opening up these bands for nonfederal use as they currently are being used by the Department of Defense for aeronautical, maritime and land-based radar operation,” Cooper said. “Our experience with other bands is teaching us a mix of attractive techniques to free up spectrum while still protecting critical federal capabilities,” Cooper said. Sharing technologies “can be the most expeditious and least costly way to accommodate both federal and nonfederal uses,” he said. Cooper noted the citizens broadband radio service auction is underway (see 2007300039) and NTIA remains active in making sharing work there. The auction is a “watershed moment” for dynamic sharing, he said.

CSMAC approved a final report by its Future Spectrum Requirements of Non-Federal Users Subcommittee. The group “encountered concerns about the authority of the NTIA to collect current or future spectrum usage data from commercial licensees,” the report said: “For many commercial spectrum licensees, the potential information collected is considered proprietary.” Before data and future estimates can be made available to NTIA, “these issues will need to be addressed, as well as the cost of providing/acquiring this data,” the report said.

A report by the Interference Prevention, Detection and Resolution Subcommittee, also approved by CSMAC, looked at how NTIA and FCC equipment authorization rules could be modified to require all transmitters use a unique identifier. “Although there are specific use cases where a unique identifier may be a viable and effective regulatory tool, the challenges with implementing any such a requirement on a ubiquitous basis would be complex and multifaceted,” the report said. It recommended a “band-by-band or use case approach rather than some broader mandate.”