FCC Works Toward Providing More Sound Policy for Satellite Industry, Spectrum, Wireless Infrastructure
The FCC recognizes that satellite industry innovation will continue to play a role in driving efficient use of spectrum in the satellite industry and everywhere else, said Chairman Julius Genachowski. “No one dealing with spectrum had to deal with efficiency earlier and faster than the satellite industry did,” he said Tuesday at the Satellite 2013 Conference in Washington. After focusing on wireless, auctions for terrestrial use and providing unlicensed spectrum for Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and other services, the commission has been working to further expand spectrum use and availability, he said.
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"We understand at the FCC … the central role that satellites play in national security, in public safety, extending broadband to remote parts of America and all over the world” and facilitating communications in most of the major areas, like transportation and financial services, said Genachowski. In fostering innovation in satellite, “what’s happening in the commercial space industry is very exciting,” he said. “As NASA has been winding down what it does, the commercial space has been winding up.”
The commission realizes that it “needs to do its part to provide certainty and predictability to the commercial space industry as it’s planning more launches,” Genachowski said. The FCC’s recent action on small satellite licensing and launch activities (CD March 18 p11) is intended “to push us forward on a licensing scheme for commercial space that’s clear and predictable,” he said.
The commission has taken some big steps to unleash spectrum, Genachowski said. He then listed a litany of U.S. and FCC accomplishments: 1) Leading the world on the innovation side. 2) People using American-made mobile operating systems and apps. 3) On the infrastructure side, the U.S. is leading the world in next-generation mobile 4G LTE. 4) The commission is working on an incentive auction proceeding as a mechanism to reallocate spectrum from less efficient uses to more efficient uses. 5) The FCC also is working on policy innovation that addresses the next-generation of unlicensed spectrum, he added.
Genachowski said sequestration will have more of an impact on the FCC’s ability to do its job as time goes on. The FCC “is at its lowest number of employees in 30 years,” he said. “We have to get our fiscal house in order in the U.S.”