ADMINISTRATION SPECTRUM REPORTS URGE NEW FEDERAL ACCOUNTABILITY

The report on federal govt. spectrum, the key report of the 2, includes among its recommendations that the NTIA and FCC “work cooperatively” to standardize the methods needed for evaluating spectrum efficiency and effectiveness and that NTIA develop a “best practices” handbook. The report also said the govt. should force federal agencies to evaluate how they're using spectrum and their actual needs and whether they could use spectrum more efficiently.

The report recommended that the NTIA take better advantage of information technology (IT) to move away from paper-based procedures. The report also weighs in heavily on the importance of coordination and oversight. The report recommends both a policy and plans steering group to oversee spectrum policy and policy coordinating committee to address issues not resolved by the other committee.

The Administration also recommends that Congress give FCC permanent auction authority as well as authority to collect fees for spectrum use.

Michael Gallagher, acting NTIA dir., said in an interview Thurs. many of the recommendations could lead to real changes in federal spectrum policy. “We'll see much more effective marshaling of federal resources and stronger combination of resources among agencies, including human resources and IT, in spectrum policy.” Gallagher also said most agreed the federal govt. must do more coordinated planning. “There’s been a universal chorus from the industry… that we look beyond the end of our noses for spectrum decision making,” he said.

Several sources said Fri. they were still digesting the reports. “There’s a lot to look at and it came out late in the day on Thurs.,” one source said. “For a lot of people who are interested, this will be weekend reading. I didn’t expect much and so far this doesn’t look like much.”

Greg Rohde, NTIA dir. under President Clinton, told us that while recommending that federal agencies review their use of the spectrum, the report doesn’t address the fact that industry also may underutilize spectrum. “These are mostly just process documents,” Rohde said: “I don’t know if anyone can criticize what is recommended. These are good ideas, but at the same time there’s nothing new here.” Rohde found one ingredient conspicuously absent. While federal govt. agencies are mandated to evaluate their use of spectrum, “there’s no comparable requirement for the FCC to do a similar process with private users. I have always thought there hasn’t been effective enough use of spectrum in the private sector.”

Rohde said a recommendation that FCC and NTIA adopt a career development program for spectrum managers was appropriate. He said one gap is that many of the recommendations will cost money to implement and the report doesn’t recommend additional resources. Rohde also noted the role politics will play in making tough spectrum decisions. “When you really boil it down, the real challenge we have is to find strong political leadership to make the tough decisions to utilize the spectrum in both private sector use and government use as much as possible,” he said. “There’s nothing in the reports to suggest we're going to have any change of allocation procedures.”

James Lewis, dir. of the CSIS Technology & Public Policy Program, which published a report last year critical of federal spectrum policy, said many of the recommendations could prove helpful. Lewis said he was pleased the govt. plans to do more long term spectrum planning. “This is something we thought was crucial,” Lewis said. “Most of the countries that do better on spectrum management than the U.S. -- U.K., Germany, Australia, New Zealand -- tend to think ahead on these issues. Uncertainty is good for lawyers because there’s a lot of fighting, but it’s important to look ahead.” But, he noted: “How they implement this strategy is going to be tricky. Agreeing to do a strategy is good. Now comes the hard part.”