Baker Seeks Long-Term FCC Spectrum Plan
FCC Commissioner Meredith Baker wants a spectrum policy plan that’s not just a “subset” of the National Broadband Plan, she said at a Phoenix Center event Thursday. The “cross-governmental long-term strategic framework” on spectrum “should be one of our major efforts of 2010 and should chart the government’s course well into the decade,” she said. The plan would include a spectrum inventory and a review of secondary market rules, she said. “By taking full stock of our spectrum resources and how they are being used, and adapting secondary market and service rules to the changed conditions and technologies we have today, I think we can make great strides to help ensure that the U.S. consumers are the beneficiaries of a world-class mobile broadband infrastructure.”
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“For broadband to reach its full potential,” the U.S. needs “lots more” spectrum soon, Baker said. Industry efforts to increase spectrum efficiency are valuable but not enough, she said. The broadband plan “no doubt” will address spectrum policy “at some length,” she said, but long-term spectrum reform can’t play second fiddle to broadband reform, she said. “The commission should develop a separate, complementary approach to guide the nation’s spectrum policy into the next decade.” Baker joked that she’s “not suggesting 15 more workshops or 20 more comment cycles, but I am proposing a more comprehensive and searching review of our nation’s spectrum management policies.”
The spectrum plan would provide an up-to-date framework of short- and long-term goals, Baker said. It should be a “living document” that adapts to changes and gives the public a “clear sense of the policy direction of the government and a time line for additional spectrum availability to the extent possible,” she said: The plan’s transparent nature would provide “a predictable flow of spectrum resources to broadband providers” so they can plan better, and make “more flexible use of existing allocations.” The plan should also provide economic and regulatory policies to facilitate investment, Baker said, and would create policies and forums to spur research and development.
Baker wants the FCC to adopt a spectrum plan by the end of next year. After her remarks, she told reporters she’s optimistic the commission will adopt a plan, but it’s not definite. She spoke with Chairman Julius Genachowski about her spectrum ideas, Baker said. “The chairman is open to all great ideas, and I think this is a great idea.”
The first part of the framework would be a comprehensive inventory showing how government and industry use spectrum today, said Baker, saying she doesn’t believe the agency would need Congress to sign off on it. The inventory must be a “user-friendly resource” that can “be incorporated into more sophisticated spectrum management tools,” she said. “Without an inventory that shows where spectrum opportunities may lie, and where there are no-go zones, the FCC cannot expect people to build business plans and spectrum-sharing models that are going to help meet the spectrum needs of consumers.”
Baker wants the FCC to take a holistic look at its secondary market rules. They were developed to encourage deployment in unserved and underserved areas, but they may no longer be attracting desired levels of investment, she said. “We need to ask what the commission can do to stimulate secondary market transactions that enhance efficient use of existing spectrum allocations.” The regulator should “rationalize and update” existing spectrum allocation and service rules, she said. “Decades old, service-specific and technology-specific allocations have splintered our spectrum, delayed implementation of tremendous innovation and arguably resulted in inefficiencies.”
On the timing of the broadband plan, Baker told reporters she expects to receive preliminary briefings from the broadband team next week, in advance of the FCC’s Dec. 16 meeting. The meetings will give commissioners “better clarity on what the record holds so we will know what will be coming forward,” she said. “We're hoping to start seeing some written items sooner rather than later.”
Everyone at the commission wants the broadband plan to direct the Universal Service Fund to support broadband, Baker said, but “you can’t just add it” without overhauling the fund. The FCC seems to be at a “tipping point” where it has to act on USF, she said, and a revamp will likely be a top issue in 2010.