NTIA Still Has Little to Say on Future of 1755 MHz Band
The future of the 1755-1780 MHz band remains uncertain, almost half a year after NTIA wrapped up a report on the band. The band is carriers’ top priority for reallocation for wireless broadband. Congress left language out of recently enacted spectrum legislation that would have required reallocating the 1755-1780 MHz band for auction, following pressure from the Defense Department (CD Feb 21 p4). NTIA remains evasive about the band in a document slated to be presented to the Commerce Spectrum Management Advisory Committee (CSMAC) Thursday. A spokesman said Wednesday the report is set to be released in coming weeks.
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NTIA is set to formally respond to recommendations CSMAC made at its November meeting, that NTIA reallocate the 1755-1850 MHz band for commercial use in “stages,” making 1755-1780 MHz available first (CD Nov 14 p5). NTIA agreed, but offered little additional information. NTIA wrapped up the report last fall (CD Oct 3 p14), before circulating it to other agencies in the government for review.
"NTIA notes that staging of the repurposing of any spectrum depends in part on NTIA efforts and feasible approaches to moving agency systems while safeguarding agency missions, and in part on FCC decisions concerning allocation rulemakings,” NTIA says in a response document, released prior to the meeting. “Pending the outcome of its 1755-1850 MHz report [NTIA] would work with the agencies and the FCC to consider any appropriate phasing.”
NTIA also agreed with a recommendation that 1755-1780 MHz be licensed for “exclusive use” if possible. But it warned that clearing the spectrum of DOD and other users won’t be easy. “NTIA expects that relocation of incumbent systems will become more and more difficult,” the agency said, predicting clearance will be even more difficult than the multi-year process required to clear the AWS-1 band. “New entrants seeking early entry (prior to agency complete relocation) will have to deal with sharing during the transition period, however long that period may be,” NTIA said.
"4G Americas was disappointed the 1755 to 1780 MHz spectrum was not included in the [spectrum] bill,” 4G Americas President Chris Pearson said Wednesday. “4G Americas still hopes that NTIA can soon study this band and that the band can be brought to auction sooner rather than later. It is a critical mobile broadband spectrum band for the entire Americas, and countries are closely following the U.S. progress and leadership for making this band available to the wireless industry."
The report “appears to be in a holding pattern, somewhere in the clearance process,” said an industry official. “I assume that means that DOD doesn’t like the conclusions. … We know how this works. There’s a report and there’s competing stuff.” The process is well established, the official said. “You do a viability assessment. Can you move? Do the laws of physics dictate that you be in a particular spectrum band? If the answer is no, what are the characteristics of the place that you would need to move to? Is that available? How much would it cost? How long would it take? And you put all the information out there in a very granular way and allow people to test it. If the number and cost and the time is one that makes the spectrum still of interest and of value to the industry, then they can bid on it.” None of that information has been made available, the official said: “Until you put that out, you can’t even start. … It’s unacceptable to simply say we're not going to answer the questions."
History shows that government agencies tend to overestimate relocation costs, the official said. The initial estimated cost of moving federal users out of 1710-1755 MHz, the AWS-1 band, was $3 billion. The real cost turned out to be $950 million.
"My guess is nothing will be easy or expedient about reallocating the 1755-1780 MHz band for commercial wireless use via auction,” said Jeff Silva, analyst at Medley Global Advisors. “NTIA is in a tough spot. On the one hand, the administration wants to free up more airwaves in light of heavy wireless data demand in a spectrum-scarce environment. On the other hand, the administration is especially reluctant in the post-9/11 world to compromise defense capabilities and homeland security generally. This tension will not be relieved easily.”