Strickling Responds to GAO Report, Urges Spectrum Law

The GAO report offered “useful perspective” on NTIA’s role managing federal spectrum, Strickling said. GAO recommended that NTIA update its strategic plan, but Strickling said President Barack Obama’s June 28, 2010, memo and the administration’s Wireless Innovation Initiative “provide significant strategic direction” for NTIA and other federal agencies. In response to two other GAO recommendations, NTIA is reviewing its five-year spectrum assignment review processes and internal controls to ensure agencies report accurate and complete data, he said. “NTIA has proposed approaches to the [Interdepartment Radio Advisory Committee] to implement new measures such as identification of an agency point-of contact who, for each five-year review, will submit an attestation regarding the currency and accuracy of the information and the need for the ongoing use of the associated systems,” he said. “Based on feedback from the Federal agencies, NTIA expects to start implementing some of these proposals by the end of the fiscal year."

The Obama administration “urges Congress to adopt proposals to improve the process for reassigning spectrum encumbered by Federal users to private use, grant authority for the FCC to hold incentive auctions, create governance structures and channel auction proceeds to manage the deployment and operation of a nationwide interoperable public safety broadband network, and spur innovation in wireless services by both providing for unlicensed access to wireless spectrum and funding critical research and development,” Strickling said. The NTIA administrator also urged an update of the Commercial Spectrum Enhancement Act to support agencies’ up-front planning costs with money from the spectrum relocation fund. Strickling said the Senate spectrum bill, S-911, “makes important strides in better accommodating the costs of relocating Federal users."

"Accommodating” all government users “in order to re-allocate a single band can present an extremely complex and time-consuming challenge,” Strickling said. NTIA and other federal agencies plan to complete evaluation of the 1755-1850 MHz band by Sept. 30, he said. If made available, relocating federal users from all or part of the band “may take anywhere from a few years to more than 10 years, depending on the complexity and cost of Federal equipment currently in use,” Strickling said. “In addition, particularly in the case of satellite systems, it is possible that the federal government may need to maintain some geographic exclusion zones for longer than ten years."

Commerce Committee Republicans want to know what can delay and accelerate relocation of government spectrum for commercial use, they said in a majority memo dated July 1. The GOP members asked about the status of the AWS-1 band and lessons learned from that relocation experience. They asked how soon the 1755-1780 MHz band can be cleared, and how soon “fast track” (1695-1710 MHz and 3550-3650 MHz) and other spectrum identified by NTIA will be available for commercial use. Republicans asked “what government operations are best suited to sharing,” and if there are any “government spectrum operations that could be more efficiently or economically handled by commercial networks.” And they asked if there are any incentives for government users to share spectrum with other government users, and if there are any incentives or disincentives for government users in the relocation process.