VICTORY: NTIA EXAMINING IRAC GUIDELINES, SPECTRUM FLEXIBILITY

IRAC meets in private and occasionally has been criticized by industry for lack of transparency on spectrum decisions. IRAC, which includes representatives of cabinet- level departments and other federal agencies, has spectrum planning subcommittee that develops recommendations to NTIA on agency requests for spectrum for new systems and planned use of specific bands. Frequency assignment subcommittee aids NTIA in assigning and coordinating frequencies for use by federal govt. Among issues that IRAC addresses is coordinated approval for spectrum systems that involve both federal and commercial spectrum. “The IRAC should be operating behind closed doors because it’s just within the federal government and they often deal with a lot of classified systems. So that’s entirely appropriate,” Victory said. However, NTIA will examine guidelines that publicize areas such as extent to which FCC works with IRAC, process that entails providing guidance on issues such as when meetings are held, she said. Point would be to give private sector interests with application pending at FCC that need to be coordinated through IRAC understanding of shape and timing of process, Victory said.

“Right now for most of the public, if they have something that needs to be coordinated with the IRAC, that’s all they know,” she said. “They don’t really know how that happens, how it takes place, how long it will take, when the IRAC is going to meet, those sorts of things. To the extent that we can at least put some general guidelines in place and put that forth so that folks have an understanding of what that means, that will perhaps ease some of the anxiety which will be very helpful.” Victory said her hope was that NTIA could look at process of coordination with FCC so “that there might be some general guidelines for how that coordination occurs and that some of that is made public.”

“I think it’s a wonderful suggestion and an important step,” said Washington attorney Scott Harris, former head of FCC’s International Bureau. “The IRAC plays a critical role in developing U.S. spectrum policy and it can only be good both for the private sector and for the government were the IRAC process to become more transparent and open.” Industry source said that several years ago, NTIA issued brochure detailing process for companies to come in and make presentations to IRAC about emerging technologies and other issues, although substance of IRAC policymaking always has been behind closed doors.

In other areas, while NTIA’s Spectrum Summit in April covered wide range of views on how to make spectrum management more efficient, Victory said changes in that area were more likely to focus on incentives to encourage better use rather than punishment for bad behavior. “There are reforms that can be made,” she said. “But my view at this point is it’s probably going to be moving more in the direction of how do we facilitate sharing, how do we use technology and regulatory incentives to foster that?”

One of first orders of business is to look at “what legislative changes -- if any -- need to be made,” Victory said. Both House and Senate have expressed interest in spectrum management legislation and NTIA plans to make recommendations in that area and inform Hill whether govt. already has requisite tools at its disposal, she said. NTIA also will be working with FCC on ways that spectrum policy coordination process between agencies could be improved, as well as areas that NTIA could improve on its own, Victory said. To that end, President Bush’s budget proposal contained line item for $340,000 that would allow for paperless federal spectrum management process that would be similar to what FCC has for commercial parties in its universal licensing system, she said. “We are going to try to do something similar if we can get that funded, which we think is very important,” she said.

Overall health of telecom industry also is high on agenda for rest of her tenure at agency, Victory said. Corporate responsibility has been important theme in Bush Administration and has particular resonance for telecom industry, “particularly after recent events,” she said: “This is an industry that really needs to restore credibility in order to get the investment dollars they seek, whether we are looking at stock or venture capital money. That’s going to be a critical issue.” Administration, including NTIA, is looking to see if there are additional recommendations for how to help industry regain “some of that credibility and confidence,” she said.

Another important area that has emerged from more than year of examination of potential improvements to spectrum management is emphasis on opportunities for more sharing that wouldn’t cause interference, Victory said. “I think that is probably the direction that spectrum management is going to take,” she said. “We are still in the beginning stages of this process. But my view at this point is it’s probably going to be moving more in the direction of how do we facilitate sharing, how do we use technology and regulatory incentives to foster that,” she said. Another important element will be technological developments such as software- defined radio that allow existing spectrum allocations to be used more efficiently, she said. Among toughest spectrum issues that need to be addressed next is digital transition in 700 MHz band to clear way for wireless operators, she said. “It is very challenging and perhaps even more challenging than 3G because with 3G there were technical issues that needed to be resolved, not really as many kinds of policy issues,” she said. “There are more moving parts to the DTV debate and I think that’s one of the reasons that it’s been so difficult to solve.”

While NTIA has weighed in at FCC in several spectrum policy areas in past year, including wireless spectrum cap which Commission will sunset at year-end, Victory said that one area that still awaits action is secondary markets proceeding. “We're hoping that the FCC is going to move forward on that fairly rapidly,” she said.

In other areas, thrust of Administration’s broadband policy efforts now appears to be distributed among experts of individual agencies rather than part of overarching package, Victory said. Earlier in Administration, it wasn’t clear whether one large package of recommendations would be released or whether work would be spread out among separate agency initiatives, she said. “The way it has transpired, it’s really been more the individual efforts,” she said. “We have been moving on rights-of-way, the FCC has been moving on its variety of proceedings.” NTIA held National Summit on Broadband Deployment in Oct. and as recently as last fall it had been widely expected that it was question of when -- not whether -- Administration’s broadband policy would be part of total package.

“At the time when we first started working on this we were looking at what are the areas where we could impact the delivery of these new services, creating the right regulatory environment, creating the right financial environment that will nurture these new technologies along,” Victory said. “At that point it was not clear whether we were going to release one big package or whether we were going to pursue individual efforts.” While those initial broader questions still are in play, in addition to what FCC and NTIA are working on, she said both President’s Council of Advisers on Science & Technology (PCAST) and Commerce Dept.’s Technology Administration have been examining broadband demand, with Technology Administration also looking at areas such as how broadband might help small businesses. “So we all ended up moving these individual initiatives forward,” Victory said. “As we come up with other ideas or as ideas continue to be more fully developed, there will be other initiatives in that area as well.”

One area NTIA has been working on is creating best practices or identifying “lessons learned” to help federal and state govts. administer public rights-of-way and similar regulations. NTIA created federal rights-of-way working group over summer out of discussions with industry that had focused on broadband demand and supply issues. Last spring, Victory said that constraints on accessing public rights-of- way and tower sites might be inhibiting or in some cases delaying broadband network rollouts. She said response from federal agencies so far had been enthusiastic to finding ways of making the process work more efficiently. “I think, from industry’s standpoint, they would like to make sure that their applications go through and that their administrative costs are reduced,” she said. Federal agencies are strapped for resources and are interested in building on decisions that others already may have made in certain areas, Victory said. She said she was hopeful progress could be made in next several months on model that states and local govts. also could use.