NEW PENTAGON CIO STRESSES THAT 3G POSES RISK, NOT MONEY ISSUES
Pending 3rd generation wireless policy issues aren’t question of money but of risk for military users, Dept. of Defense’s (DoD) new Chief Information Officer John Stenbit stressed Fri. He became asst. defense secy. for command, control, communications & intelligence (C3I) Aug. 7, and held media briefing at Pentagon Aug. 24. “I don’t think it’s a money issue,” Stenbit said of 3G policy scenarios, which include DoD military users’ relocating from 1755-1850 MHz. “It’s a risk management issue.” Stenbit, who retired as TRW exec. vp in May, particularly emphasized risks that relocation posed for existing GPS satellite systems, saying miscalculation on spectrum management in that area would have far graver consequences for military than similar missteps would for commercial wireless users. “It’s a very hard problem to build up the certainty we need,” he said.
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“We cannot vacate that spectrum and have that GPS capability work for about 17 years,” Stenbit said of 1.7 GHz band that’s candidate for 3G use along with 2.5 GHz occupied by MMDS and Instructional TV Fixed Service. He echoed point made by his predecessor Linton Wells, acting asst. secy. of C3I, in recent round of 3G hearings on Capitol Hill (CD July 25 p1). Even with comparable spectrum and timely compensation, DoD satellite control systems wouldn’t be able to vacate 1.7 GHz before 2017 and terrestrial systems before 2010, Wells had said. Typical military satellite systems operating at 1.7 GHz include GPS, Defense Support Program for missile launch protection and Defense Meteorological Satellite Program. In wide-ranging briefing, Stenbit was asked whether military users vacating spectrum was foregone conclusion as 3G issues moved through Congress. Industry has “a lot more money than we do,” he acknowledged, although he said he had faith in congressional process and said lawmakers had been handling issue well. “We do have some real problems,” he said. “My real gripe here is they [industry] have tried to make this into a money issue and they are doing a good job of it.” If relocation date of 2015 or 2017 is being targeted, “it’s also incumbent on DoD to start a long-range process to understand how we can rationalize spectrum over the long range.”
Referring to satellite systems, he said: “The real issue is we can’t move for 15 years.” On relocation options, DoD reports have shown that one problem with that scenario is that it’s not clear what replacement bands would be available for military users to move into. Stenbit said sharing options would have significant problems with interference potential between DoD and commercial systems. “If we move, I assure you that wherever we move will be the next place somebody wants to go,” Stenbit said. Point is that existing DoD bands have spectrum characteristics that are attractive to commercial users, too, he said: “All the spectrum in that area has the same attributes [and] is all valuable to people for the right reasons. I would be very suspicious if there was a place to which we could move that would then stay that way.”
Stenbit stressed risk differential for military users versus private sector if spectrum calculations in relocation decisions were incorrect. Describing hypothetical situation, Stenbit said that even if DoD was furnished with replacement frequencies, new antennas and clearance of environmental siting issues, major caveat still would remain: What would happen if relocations calculations were off and “the GPS has trouble because you weren’t right and a plane crashes… or if a precision guided bomb on a testing range lands in a field rather than on the range.” He described commercially available newer systems that military could use as “jazzier” than existing operations. But risks of relocation for commercial users if something went wrong would have more to do with customer relationships, he said. For military, “it’s not the same risk.”