CSMAC Report Offers Administration Advice on Clearing Critical Band for Broadband

The 1755 MHz band “remains NTIA’s focus at this point,” Associate Administrator Karl Nebbia told the group. Speed is critical, though NTIA hopes to give CSMAC members a manageable workload, he said: “We're really not looking for you to kill yourselves.” NTIA is expected to issue a report on the band in September, but all issues don’t have to be resolved by then, he said. Even though timing is short, CSMAC put off a decision on approving the report at Wednesday’s meeting.

Gary Epstein, co-chair of the working group, backed an “informal technical process” to discuss the uses of the band and industry concerns. “We want to keep an open dialogue to the extent we can with NTIA ... in order to make this band work well,” he said. Epstein said the group has to decide where it will shift its focus following completion of the report on the 1755 MHz band. “We support making available spectrum subject to sharing,” he said. “The preference ... was the government operations be moved out. If that’s not feasible for various reasons ... we do want to consider sharing, particularly where the commercial users reasonable and defined levels of interference."

One of the key sticking points for making the band available for auction -- paired with 2155-2180 MHz -- has been the number of government operations there. The report suggests, for example, air combat training systems in the 1755-1850 MHz band could be shifted to frequencies including 1350-1390, 1435-1525, 2025-2110, 2200-2300 or 2360-2395 MHz. Precision-guided munitions could be shifted to the same frequencies, the report suggests. It suggests potential new assignments for military tactical radios, unmanned aerial vehicles, law enforcement video surveillence, tracking and telemetry for federal government space systems and other users of the band.

"Clearing spectrum should be the goal,” according to one of the principles in the working group’s draft report. Clearing spectrum “provides greatest utility for commercial broadband” and “provides highest spectrum value.” The report also cites the strong support for reallocating the 1755-1850 MHz band, noting it’s “globally harmonized” and “builds on AWS and PCS spectrum.”

There is “no simple answer” to the question of how much interference is acceptable for carriers, the draft suggests. “Interference in highly populated areas will generally have greater impact and be less acceptable than more rural areas,” the draft report finds. It also observes some operations and operators “may be able to accept more interference” than others. “NTIA should work with industry to understand impact of interference on a government system-by-system basis,” the report said.

Multi-band phones can mitigate the impact of interference, the report contends. The effect is different for different services. Circuit-switched voice faces more of a threat from interference than packet-switched data services such as email and Web browsing. The draft report argues rules should define the expected interference level and responsibilities of parties sharing spectrum “as closely as possible.” Rules should also allow for flexibility in resolving interference fights, the draft suggests. “Overly prescriptive rules will not yield optimum solutions or allow for new approaches as technology changes.”

The report also examined issues related to how spectrum is valued. CSMAC also heard reports from its spectrum sharing, unlicensed spectrum and spectrum management improvements subcommittees.