Acting NTIA Dir. Michael Gallagher told reporters Thurs. that rec...

industry feedback on spectrum policy reform. The Information Technology Industry Council and CEA are holding the forum with Gallagher with the private sector at Intel’s campus. NTIA has held recent forums in Washington to gather feedback for recommendations being drafted at the direction of an executive memorandum President Bush signed in May. He created a task force on stimulating more efficient spectrum use by federal operators. “We anticipate delivering 2 different action plans by May 29,” Gallagher said. Part of the debate has centered on how to measure the efficiency of govt. use of spectrum. “We have had a very active dialog and some would say debate among the agencies about what is the meaning of efficiency,” Gallagher said. He called it an important “foundational element” of the action plan. In the private sector, measures of spectrum efficiency are relatively straightforward, he said, noting the definition is typically bits per hertz per sq. km. While some have said measures of govt. efficiency of spectrum use can’t be directly defined in monetary terms, Gallagher said the debate had addressed how to come up with a gauge for agencies. The final output of the task force is likely to include significant recommendations on how to develop tools that make such measurements easier, he said. “Just because it’s hard doesn’t mean we shouldn’t do it or that we shouldn’t get as close as we can to our best judgment. In other areas, Gallagher in a Q&A stressed the importance to the Administration of spectrum relocation legislation that would reimburse govt. incumbents for relocating from spectrum to pave the way for advanced wireless services such as 3G. The spectrum relocation trust fund bill became bogged down in the Senate last year after the Northpoint amendment was added by Sen. Sununu (R-N.H.), which would require the FCC to give multichannel video distribution & data service (MVDDS) providers access to spectrum. The language was seen as a gift to Northpoint and was opposed by House and Senate Commerce Committee leaders. The FCC’s MVDDS auction ended in Jan. after 49 rounds. “The Northpoint amendment is what slowed things down in the Senate and that amendment is becoming less viable or less of a challenge as time goes on because the spectrum has been auctioned,” Gallagher noted. “Once the auction is officially closed the simple fact of that occurrence should go a long way toward mitigating the Northpoint concerns,” he said.