VICTORY SAYS 3G STUDY IS ON TRACK, BUT 120 MHz MAY NOT BE FREED
ORLANDO -- NTIA Dir. Nancy Victory told CTIA Wireless 2002 show here that her agency was “on track” for completing “viability assessment” by end of spring on how to free up 120 MHz of commercial and govt. spectrum for advanced wireless uses. She cautioned: “It’s hard to know what we're going to end up with until the process is over. It may be we are not able to clear all 120 MHz of spectrum.” She told standing- room-only session here: “The idea was not necessarily to make an allocation decision.” Victory said evaluation was examining issues such as cost of relocating incumbent users and possibilities for replacement spectrum. Resulting proposal will look at “how fast you could clear it,” she said.
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Victory told reporters later that NTIA was in collaborative effort with Dept. of Defense to look at military spectrum that’s under study as part of process. NTIA is weighing making 60 MHz of commercial spectrum and same amount of govt. spectrum available for advanced wireless services. One question for industry has been how govt. will treat 15 MHz of spectrum that was left in Oct. after it withdrew bulk of DoD spectrum that had been under consideration for 3G, leaving on table 15 MHz to be evaluated that’s still occupied by military. Victory told reporters that agency continued to make “great progress” in going through govt. systems as part of study: “In fact, we've probably gotten through the easy systems and have the hard ones to go.”
Victory also said she hadn’t received any negative feedback from Capitol Hill on proposal in Administration’s budget that would set up trust fund to help govt. incumbents relocate when they're displaced from auctioned spectrum. Trust fund would be established to receive portion of auction proceeds, and agency such as Office of Management & Budget would dole out relocation funds to eligible users, she said in Q&A with CTIA Pres. Tom Wheeler. “The idea is bidders would have a little bit more idea what they're going to pay in order to get access to this spectrum,” she said. Asked by Wheeler whether proposed trust fund was helping to alleviate concerns of govt. users who might be relocated, she said: “I think it is helping in that direction. Is it alleviating all of their concerns? Clearly not.”
Still, Victory said it was viewed as better process because govt. agencies knew money would be put aside “to make them whole” and possibly upgrade equipment as they moved to new frequencies. “But I think the concern among the government users is perhaps a little bit of skepticism as to how it might be implemented ultimately,” she said. Agencies appear to be happy with overall idea while concerned about implementation issues such as how they would have access to funds, she said: “The devil is in the details.”
Wheeler ticked off list of industry concerns about regulatory relief that would be needed if wireless sector was to continue to invest capital in growth, particularly in light of increased importance customers have put on wireless phone use after Sept. 11. While raising concerns about govt. mandates historically applied to less-competitive wireline industry, such as local number portability (LNP), Wheeler reiterated call for govt. to free more spectrum for wireless carriers. “This industry can do better in the coverage that we offer. This industry can do better in customer satisfaction,” he said. “But it all starts with the government doing better in spectrum policies. We need to send a simple message: Free the wireless spectrum now.”
While wireless prices have dropped significantly, govt. mandates and tax policies have nearly kept pace with those cuts in add-ons to subscriber bills that often are missed by consumers, Wheeler said: “All too often we see regulatory policy that sucks out investment capital. We can’t sit idly by while the benefits of competition are hijacked on their way to the consumer’s pocket.”
Asked whether unlicensed spectrum took pressure off industry needs for more licensed spectrum, VoiceStream Chmn. John Stanton said unlicensed bands were good opportunity. “But it doesn’t change the fundamental need for licensed services for us to be able to provide true 3rd generation technology,” he said: “We continue to need that 120 MHz.”
In speech to IEEE Wireless Communications & Networking Conference, which is being held in same location as CTIA show this year, FCC Office of Engineering & Technology Chief Ed Thomas stressed ways that Commission was looking for more flexible spectrum policies, in part through recently created spectrum policy task force. “We are looking for ways to encourage efficient use of the spectrum,” he said. “We certainly want to protect incumbents from unacceptable levels of interference.” Thomas said he expected what constituted “acceptable interference” to be subject for debate in coming months. He reiterated that among questions spectrum task force was examining was how to measure what constituted efficient spectrum use and how to use such metrics for incentives for better use. As for ultra-wideband item that FCC passed at Feb. agenda meeting, Thomas outlined types of UWB technologies that now could move forward, including ground penetrating radar applications, and stressed that FCC would conduct its own tests in next 6-12 months to assess limits in rules. For peer-to-peer communications using UWB, he said, “that’s probably going to be a lot harder under the existing rules because they're extremely strenuous.” FCC has said it plans to revisit rules to assess whether they are overly stringent or not stringent enough and will make adjustments accordingly.