NTIA Looking for Companies to Take Part in Spectrum-Sharing Testbed
The NTIA said Tuesday it seeks participants for its long-awaited spectrum testbed to test the effectiveness of dynamic spectrum access technology. Companies that want to take part must notify the agency by Feb. 28.
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The testbed was an important recommendation of President Bush’s Spectrum Policy Initiative. Acting NTIA Administrator Meredith Baker said the testbed is modeled on successful sharing at 5 GHz. “The testbed also will explore innovative ways to make greater use of the nation’s airwaves and promote continued economic growth and national security,” she said. Baker said last year the initial bed probably will be at 410 to 420 MHz, but the agency will look for other spectrum for additional testbeds.
“It’s obvious that there’s thirst for more spectrum, and yet spectrum such as is now on the auction block doesn’t become available very often so what do you do if you're an innovator if you can’t access spectrum that is essentially virgin spectrum for sharing,” said an industry source active developing the NTIA’s testbed proposal. “There’s just a lot of pushing and shoving even though the president’s spectrum initiative points to sharing as a solution to a spectrum shortage. Whenever you raise that prospect, incumbents, be they government, try to block it and typically they do so using kind of a fear factor.”
Meanwhile, the FCC said Tuesday it has chosen the 470 to 512 MHz band for its companion testbed, to improve sharing between federal government and other radio users. “We support NTIA in this testbed initiative, and after coordination discussions with NTIA conclude that a testbed designation in the 470-512 MHz frequency band, which contains Television Broadcast Systems (TV channels 14-20) as well as Land Mobile Radio Systems, will provide the greatest benefits to meeting the goals set out in the President’s Spectrum Initiative,” the agency said.
FCC Commissioner Michael Copps expressed concerns that the government has fallen behind schedule on testbeds. “I must register my concern (as I did back in 2006) that at each step of the process the U.S. Government is falling behind the timeframe originally envisioned in 2004,” Copps said. “It is now abundantly clear that we will not achieve the June 2008 target for completing this project. I hope that, despite the late start, we are able to accelerate the pace of this proceeding.”
“It was June of 2006 when we first sought comment on creating a… testbed,” Commissioner Jonathan Adelstein said. “But just because we've made the bed, doesn’t mean it’s time to rest. Instead, it’s high time that we rouse from our nearly two-year slumber and get this initiative underway.”
“If sharing is successfully demonstrated, the results of the testbed can be used as the basis to establish service rules for the technologies that have operated in the testbed frequency bands,” the NTIA said in a notice.
Equipment will be tested at the NTIA lab in Boulder, Colo., before it can be used on the frequencies set aside for the bed, the agency said. In evaluating applications, the NTIA said, it will ask questions including how well a proposed technology achieves the goal of the testbed, how readily available equipment is to be tested, how well the technology deals with possible effects on incumbents, and whether the technology can be adapted for a variety of services and applications.