Presidential Memo Pushes Spectrum Sharing, Commits $100 Million for R&D

By September, the White House said, the National Science Foundation will award $23 million in spectrum-sharing research and development grants, and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency is to announce the first of an expected $60 million in spectrum-sharing contracts to be awarded over the next five years. Next year, NTIA and the National Institute of Standards and Technology are to “devote another $17.5 million towards spectrum and advanced communications research as well as accelerate public-private collaboration at Federal laboratories,” said the White House. The Commerce Spectrum Management Advisory has looked with mixed success at issues raised by sharing, with its next meeting Tuesday afternoon.

"It’s shifting the focus from exclusive use to sharing following the PCAST report,” said a former FCC official of the memo. “The presidential memo is built on the PCAST report and it’s sort of pushing the momentum for sharing. ... From the president, this will be a big deal. The PCAST report is one thing, it’s advisors from the president, but this is the president saying” sharing is critical. An administration official said last year that while the administration generally supported the PCAST report, policy documents implementing its suggestions were unlikely (CD Sept 6 p1).

"I don’t think there’s anything too surprising,” said a former federal official who now works for the telecom industry. “This president’s fundamental orientation is more toward the high-tech sector, which authored the PCAST study. So while the funding for research on sharing isn’t super consequential in the scheme of things, given the tightness of the budget I think it’s an important signal of where this administration is heading and they have become persuaded of the importance of sharing and, at least on a theoretical level, some at the White House are convinced that some more sophisticated forms of sharing need to be explored.” Dedicating $100 million to research, “you get a catalyst, you get a catalytic effect, you get buzz, you get a blessing from this administration, which is a big deal,” the former official said.

"I think there have been some concerns among both industry participants and some CSMAC members that the federal agencies aren’t pushing [sharing] forward as aggressively as they should,” said Michael Calabrese, director of the Wireless Future Project at the New America Foundation and a member of CSMAC. “Hopefully the president’s executive memorandum would be a clear signal that the administration wants to find a way to get to, at a minimum, shared use. ... In other words, in effect the administration is taking a little more affirmative position on this now and it should be helpful in terms of helping CSMAC, the CSMAC process and NTIA to push the agencies to be more cooperative."

The money President Barack Obama proposes “is nearly all for research and development,” Calabrese noted. “As R&D spending it can help prime the pump for more spectrum sharing and also to develop technologies and the spectrum sharing database technology that will be needed to share more bands, particularly those with more mobile federal users."

Memo Offers Many Details

"Where technically and economically feasible, sharing can and should be used to enhance efficiency among all users and expedite commercial access to additional spectrum bands, subject to adequate interference protection for Federal users, especially users with national security, law enforcement, and safety-of-life responsibilities,” said the memo signed by Obama (http://1.usa.gov/ZPBCBZ). “To meet growing Federal spectrum requirements, we should also seek to eliminate restrictions on commercial carriers’ ability to negotiate sharing arrangements with agencies."

The memo establishes a Spectrum Policy Team, made up of the federal chief technology officer and the director of the National Economic Council, “or their designees,” and representatives of the Office of Management and Budget, National Security staff and Council of Economic Advisers. “The Spectrum Policy Team shall work with NTIA to implement this memorandum,” the memo said. “The Spectrum Policy Team may invite the FCC to provide advice and assistance.” The group is directed by the memo to within a year “publish a report describing how NTIA and FCC are incorporating spectrum sharing into their spectrum management Practices,” it said. “The report shall include recommendations that enable more productive uses of spectrum throughout our economy and society and protect the current and future mission capabilities of agencies."

The Commerce Department should continue its work on sharing, currently focused on the 1695-1710, 1755-1850, 5350-5470 and 5850-5925 MHz bands, the memo said. “The NTIA shall continue to facilitate these discussions and the sharing of data to expedite commercial entry into these bands where possible, provided that the mission capabilities of Federal systems designed to operate in these bands are maintained and protected, including through relocation, either to alternative spectrum or non-spectrum dependent systems, or through acceptable sharing arrangements.”

Within three months, the secretary of commerce is to publish an inventory and description of federal test facilities available to carriers and other stakeholders. Within six months, the Spectrum Policy Team is to “implement policies for the sharing with authorized nonfederal parties of classified, sensitive, or proprietary data regarding assignments, utilization of spectrum, system configurations, business plans, and other information.” The memo directed the government to report on spectrum that can be shared by each agency. “Each agency’s assessment shall be prepared according to such metrics and other parameters as are reasonably necessary to determine the extent to which spectrum assigned to the agency could potentially be made available for sharing with or release to commercial users, particularly in major metropolitan areas, without adversely affecting agencies’ missions, especially those related to national security, law enforcement, and safety of life,” the memo directed.

The memo also addressed the need for spectrum efficiency in the procurement of federal systems. It requires the Spectrum Policy Team to release a report within six months “making recommendations to the President regarding market-based or other approaches that could give agencies greater incentive to share or relinquish spectrum, while protecting the mission capabilities of existing and future systems that rely on spectrum use.” The report also delved into receiver standards, a topic long before the FCC. It “strongly” encouraged the FCC “in consultation with NTIA, where appropriate, the industry, and other stakeholders, to develop to the fullest extent of its legal authority a program of performance criteria, ratings, and other measures, including standards, to encourage the design, manufacture, and sale of radio receivers such that emission levels resulting from reasonable use of adjacent spectrum will not endanger the functioning of the receiver or seriously degrade, obstruct, or repeatedly interrupt the operations of the receiver.”

"The unfortunate aspect of this is that spectrum sharing has never been a very exciting prospect for the private sector,” said a former FCC official. “The $100 million is almost a token amount in the context of a wireless marketplace that is measured in the tens of billions if not hundreds of billions of dollars. ... In reality, very little meaningful spectrum is coming to market in the course of the next decade. The bigger questions would be how does the market react to that.”

AT&T Senior Executive Vice President Jim Cicconi welcomed the memo and report, but offered comments that put the $100 million in perspective. “At AT&T, we've been doing our part, investing nearly $80 billion in the U.S. over the past four years,” he said (http://bit.ly/11N5ZcU). “And, with the promise of supportive government policies that encourage the construction of broadband infrastructure, we're prepared to continue investing over the next four years.”

But Less Government President Seton Motley sharply criticized the administration’s approach. “The Administration’s Spectrum Priorities 1, 2 and 3 should be to as quickly as possible identify and map all government spectrum, clear as much of it as humanly possible and get it out the door for private sector use,” he said in an email. “That $100 million would be best used to this end. The government holds about 60 percent of all usable spectrum -- and uses it (shocker) very inefficiently. It places quotation marks around the words ’spectrum crunch’ -- as if to imply it isn’t a very real problem. Which it very much is. The government needs to do less spectrum sharing -- and more identifying and clearing the decks for private sector use. Spectrum sharing is (shocker) very inefficient. We don’t need a government Spectrum Technology Day dog-and-pony show."

Acting FCC Chairwoman Mignon Clyburn and Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel also issued statements supporting the administration’s release of the memo and other documents. “Our traditional three-step process for reallocating federal spectrum -- clearing federal users, relocating them, and then auctioning the cleared spectrum for new use -- is reaching its limits,” Rosenworcel said (http://bit.ly/18HCUox). “That is why since my first days in office I have endorsed building our federal spectrum policy on carrots, not sticks. I strongly support the initiatives outlined in the Presidential Memorandum, especially using incentives as a catalyst for freeing more federal spectrum for commercial use."

Congress Supports Presidential Actions

Democratic and Republican lawmakers were generally supportive of the White House announcement and said they will seek to incent federal agencies to free up more spectrum for commercial use, according to separate announcements Friday. Many industry groups also put out supportive statements.

"This Executive Memorandum focuses on the need to make more efficient use of the spectrum currently assigned to federal government users by adopting a range of improvements in the processes that are used to investigate the repurposing of spectrum to commercial mobile broadband use,” said CTIA President Steve Largent in a written statement. “While this Executive Memorandum will facilitate the continued investigation of sharing between federal and commercial users, it also tasks NTIA with continuing its efforts ’to identify opportunities for agencies to relinquish’ spectrum. Using the tools adopted in this Memorandum, and working closely with the Administration, Congress, the FCC and government departments and agencies, our collective task now is to push forward with clearing as much spectrum as possible, and work to enable the sharing of spectrum where clearing is impossible.”

"While this is a positive step forward, we must not lose sight of the fact that cleared spectrum is still the goal,” said Steve Berry, president of the Competitive Carriers Association. “Spectrum sharing is only one element in solving the spectrum crunch, and I hope the government recognizes this as we move forward."

Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., applauded the announcement as an “innovative new strategy to help meet our Nation’s growing spectrum needs,” according to a news release. Senate Commerce Committee Ranking Member John Thune, R-S.D., was “glad to see the President finally pushing his agencies to be more efficient with spectrum and to improve their collaboration with the private sector,” said his spokesman. “Some of these reforms should pay dividends in the future, but we need Presidential leadership on getting spectrum into the commercial pipeline now. In particular, I fear we are running out of time to pair the 1755 MHz band with the AWS-3 band, and if we miss that window, American consumers will suffer."

House Commerce Committee Chairman Fred Upton, R-Mich., and House Communications Subcommittee Chairman Greg Walden, R-Ore., hailed the announcement. The full committee will hold a hearing “later this month,” they said in a joint news release. “We welcome today’s announcement that the White House intends to focus more attention on the federal government’s own use of spectrum.” The yet-unscheduled hearing seeks to forward the committee’s “exploration of mutually beneficial methods to help agencies fulfill their missions while freeing spectrum to drive our country’s prosperity,” they said.

House Commerce Ranking Member Henry Waxman, D-Calif., commended the memo and will “continue to work with my colleagues in Congress to explore whether there may be additional incentives to encourage agencies to relinquish underutilized spectrum,” said a news release. Rep. Doris Matsui, D-Calif., commended the White House announcement and urged policymakers to “swiftly reallocate” federal spectrum in the 1755-1780 MHz band. “Pairing the 1755-1780 band with the 2155-2180 MHZ band makes sense not just for revenue purposes, but also for spurring innovation in our ever-growing digital economy. The clock continues to tick on the AWS-3 spectrum reallocation. We must find a timely solution that addresses both our economic needs and our national security challenges,” she said. Ex-House Communications Subcommittee Chairman Rick Boucher, a Democrat who is now honorary chairman of the Internet Innovation Alliance, said the administration’s announcement is “a great step toward keeping up with demand. But it’s just that, a step. What is urgently needed is a concerted effort to have large swaths of government-owned and underutilized spectrum repurposed for commercial auction. Hopefully these new initiatives set us on a path to get there."

House Communications Subcommittee Ranking Member Anna Eshoo, D-Calif., commended the creation of a new spectrum policy team. “Relinquishing or sharing underutilized spectrum can yield more efficient use of this limited resource and help to propel our communications economy even further into the digital age,” she said. Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., doesn’t want any one “warehousing spectrum,” he said. “I have long called for a thorough inventory of all public spectrum assets in order to gauge usage and improve efficiency, and have been frustrated by how this debate has dragged out over the past four years,” he said. “Federal agencies should have the spectrum they need to protect the public.” Senate Communications Subcommittee Chairman Mark Pryor, D-Ark., said he hopes the effort will “lead to better collaboration between the public and private sectors, improved wireless services for customers, and increased economic growth."

Free State Foundation President Randolph May said the memo is “fine,” but it will take “some real ongoing presidential leadership which has thus far been missing” to get agencies to increase their spectrum efficiency. “The word has to go forth to the agencies that the president is serious about increasing efficiency and that agency officials will be held accountable for results,” he told us. “Accountability will be a lot more important than special ’spectrum technology days.’ Furthermore, the Obama Administration should be “more generous in giving due credit to the Bush Administration” when touting America’s broadband growth, May said. “The broadband revolution didn’t begin in 2009.” Public interest group lawyer Andrew Schwartzman, who sees the memo as a “welcome development,” said “the particular actions the White House is taking are important, but it is even more important that the administration is making spectrum sharing a centerpiece of its technology policy."

Public Knowledge Senior Vice President Harold Feld praised the administration’s $100 million research grant awards aimed at enhancing spectrum efficiency and sharing. “It is not enough simply to tell federal agencies ‘be more efficient,'” Feld told us via email. “We must give federal agencies the tools to enhance efficiency. Spectrum sharing means ultimately more spectrum clearing, since federal agencies will share with each other as well as the private sector,” he said. “Those who reflexively oppose anything with the word ’sharing’ should consider that the only way to reduce the overall amount of spectrum dedicated to federal use -- and thus clear more spectrum for auction -- is to find ways for agencies to better share a smaller number of dedicated bands."

"This approach recognizes that through a combination of policy changes, innovative R&D, technology advances and commercial-government cooperation, the benefits of wireless broadband can be made available to all users, including the Federal Government,” said Douglas Smith, CEO of Oceus Networks.