NTIA Ready to Start Push for National Spectrum Strategy

“Despite all indications to the contrary, we are actually close to kicking off the process,” Harris said of the strategy. “We have a draft request for comments that we are very close to releasing” which will “ask broad questions, rather than specific questions,” he said: “We expect we will receive rather specific answers.”

The strategy’s goal will be allowing “more intensive spectrum use” by federal agencies and industry, Harris said. NTIA plans two “listening sessions,” including one in Washington, D.C., and meetings with the federal agencies, he said. Harris said work the CSMAC is doing will inform the strategy. NTIA is working closely with the FCC, he said: “We expect them to be working with us very, very closely from the beginning of the process to the end of the process. … To be successful, it’s got to be a collaborative effort.”

Work with DOD on the repurposing of the 3.1-3.45 GHz band is a top priority for NTIA, as Defense prepares a report (see 2303090074), said Charles Cooper, associate administrator in the Office of Spectrum Management. “It’s a very challenging band, and we’re working very closely with the DOD,” he said.

NTIA is watching attentively work on the 12.7 GHz band, the topic of a recent FCC notice of inquiry (see 2301300043), Cooper said. The band is primarily “nonfederal, but we do have some equities, both co-channel and adjacent channel, that we need to be concerned about,” he said. NTIA is monitoring FCC work on satellite connectivity to wireless phones (see 2302270069).

Ultra-Wideband

NTIA asked CSMAC to focus on UWB because of the “substantial number” of waiver requests that have been filed at the FCC, said Dennis Roberson of Roberson and Associates, subcommittee co-chair. “If left unchecked” the waivers “could effectively create de facto changes to the UWB rules,” he said.

“All of this is to make sure that waiver requests are better on their way in so that the amount of unnecessary work for NTIA staff is reduced,” said HWG’s Paul Margie, the other co-chair.

The report tracks 23 waiver applications filed from 2011 to 2022, with a peak of six in 2019. It notes the number is “slowly increasing.” The FCC expected “UWB would be used for communications/wireless networking technology, as well as for wall/ground penetrating devices,” the report said: “Today, low-power, secure, precision location and sensing-related applications are driving UWB innovation, not communications and wireless networking.”

The subcommittee found FCC rules haven’t changed, but “technology, the direction of innovation, and use cases have … leading to waiver requests.” The number of UWB devices in use “has grown substantially,” the subcommittee found: Growth was initially slower than expected, but it’s “now here.”

Among the recommendations is better collaboration between the FCC and NTIA, giving NTIA early information on waiver requests. NTIA should provide guidance on federal use characteristics UWB waiver applicants can use to develop technical studies and improve waiver requests, the report said. It seeks a list of the kinds of waivers that offer both lower and higher risks.

“Applicants should meet with NTIA early in the process rather than waiting until FCC seeks interagency coordination,” the report says: “Based on this discussion, applicants should prepare a technical report on the potential impact of requested waiver on federal users. Applicants should consider NTIA-identified items that will likely delay waiver approvals if included in the waiver application.”

The subcommittee also recommended greater cooperation between the government and industry. “We recommend working together to identify possible discrete changes to the FCC rules, maybe based on the already granted waivers,” Margie said.