NTIA'S GALLAGHER CALLS INDUSTRY INPUT VITAL TO COMMUNICATIONS POLICY

Advancing technology presents difficulties for spectrum policy because current spectrum allocations “are focused on known emitters, known systems that don’t move around very much,” Gallagher said: Now we're talking about “millions of devices that communicate across broad ranges of spectrum.”

Gallagher kept to Bush Administration talking points, hitting on familiar themes such as creating a low tax environment for entrepreneurs and letting private industry take the lead in developing new communications technologies. Calling technology a “cornerstone of our growing economy and Bush Administration policy” he said the govt. needed more input from industry “to understand how the technology works, understand where we need to apply government leverage and where we should not do it.” Too often the result of govt. intervention in a technological decision is a freezing of that technology, Gallagher said.

As he addressed the technicians and top brass of equipment vendors -- most unfamiliar with the ways of Washington -- Gallagher painted a discouraging picture: “Our spectrum policy framework is very strained. It’s been unchanged since 1927 [and] pretty much came about because of the Titanic disaster.” The current process is inflexible and untimely, he said: “There’s conflicting constituencies -- government agencies vs. the private sector… licensed vs. unlicensed spectrum. It also tends to be an overly lawyered process… You don’t get change at the FCC by showing up with a good idea. You have to show up with a troop of lawyers in tow. It’s adversarial and it takes years.” Recalling a tense negotiation earlier this year in which the NTIA, FCC and commercial wireless interests agreed on an arrangement to free spectrum in the 5 GHz band for Wi-Fi, Gallagher said it sometimes was necessary to bring the engineers together and throw the lawyers out of the room: “And I'm a lawyer.”

But despite its inefficiency, govt has a role in setting spectrum policy, Gallagher said. Listing what he called Bush Administration successes, he cited: (1) A 45% increase in the amount of licensed spectrum made available to 3G cellphone services, to be “completely clear to the industry by 2008.” (2) Spectrum rules for ultrawideband. Despite the fact that the technology is controversial, “on ultrawideband we led the world. We defined the standard… and because of that our market will drive the standards around the rest of the world.” (3) New spectrum allocations for Wi-Fi at 5 GHz. (4) Future millimeter wavelength authorization at 70/80/90 GHz. “That’s in the Sahara Desert of spectrum,” he said, “but the applications are real. It’s gigabits per second connectivity.” Gallagher said the govt. would make licenses available through the Internet: “You don’t go through a bureaucracy, you go to a Web page.”

On other matters, the Administration strongly supports the permanent Internet tax moratorium now before the Senate, Gallagher said: “We have worked to keep Internet access a tax-free service… The states and local governments see it differently, they would like to tax Internet access.” Gallagher also said the Administration had directed that a task force be formed to study what govt. policy should be toward Internet protocol version 6 (IP6). NTIA and the Commerce Dept.’s National Institute for Standards & Technology are consulting with the Dept. of Homeland Security and other agencies, he said, and the group was “very aware of the international efforts, especially those of Japan.”