Technology CEO Council Issues Spectrum Wake-Up Call
The Technology CEO Council Wed. called on the FCC and NTIA to complete a full analysis of which spectrum bands aren’t being put to the highest and best use. The report should look closely at govt. bands that could be used more efficiently by business, public safety or others, the report said.
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The report reflects growing pressure by the high-tech sector on the govt. to put more spectrum into play for unlicensed and licensed uses. The pressure in part led Sen. Stevens (R-Alaska) to announce last week (CD Feb 21 p1) that he would sponsor legislation freeing for unlicensed use spectrum that broadcasters aren’t using. High tech also played a key role in promoting legislation imposing a hard date for the DTV transition and setting up an auction of 700 MHz spectrum (CD Feb 3 p1).
Spectrum scarcity is one of the “scariest” infrastructure problems confronting the U.S., the report said, and results from “artificial constraints” created by public policy. “It does not have to be this way,” the report said: “Just as crop rotation and other practices of modern agriculture dramatically improved humans’ capacity to feed themselves, as modern air-traffic control systems made possible 20th century air travel and as advancing technologies enable us to find and extract oil and natural gas more efficiently… we have the technology and techniques to significantly expand the use and usability of spectrum.”
The report includes 10 recommendations to Congress, the FCC and NTIA for making more efficient use of spectrum. Among them is that Congress give the FCC “explicit authority” to hold 2-sided auctions and use auction vouchers to more readily put more spectrum into commercial use. The report called on Congress to provide “ensured, multiyear funding” so public safety agencies can invest in technologies that use spectrum more efficiently.
The report said the FCC and NTIA should make good on a commitment to establish two 10 MHz “testbeds” for experiments on spectrum sharing, a key recommendation of a June 2004 NTIA report (CD June 28 2004 p2). The report also called on the FCC to move forward on a stalled item that would make unused TV broadcast channels -- “white spaces” -- available for other uses, the subject of the Stevens bill.
“Our nation’s wireless needs are too often governed by 1970s regulations that hinder economic progress and innovation,” said Edward Zander, CEO of Motorola and chmn. of the council: “We need to rethink our approach to radio spectrum to bring our national policy into the wireless era and ensure that spectrum is available for entrepreneurs, innovators and first responders.”