House Members Pressure Agencies to Expedite Spectrum Efforts

The government has “limited time to act,” said Waxman, so it’s important that the effort is “not slowed because agencies are talking past each other or because of bureaucratic inertia.” Waxman said he believes agencies are acting in good faith, “but if this hearing is any indication, the agencies are not making progress fast enough.”

House Communications Subcommittee Ranking Member Anna Eshoo, D-Calif., called it “frustrating” to hear that officials at the Defense Department and NTIA aren’t holding substantive talks about how to reallocate federal spectrum for commercial use. Though Defense Department Chief Information Officer Teri Takai said the two departments talk about it “a lot,” Eshoo accused them of holding “Washington meeting[s]” where little is actually accomplished. “You have to have an outcome,” Eshoo said. “The same old, same old that has prevailed for years simply is not going to be accepted around here,” Eshoo said. “This is as serious as it gets, and we really want to see some movement and some action in all the right places."

Communications Subcommittee Chairman Greg Walden, R-Ore., said he too wants to “move this along” and asked Takai what specific challenges have hampered DOD’s ability to improve their wireless systems. Takai said the most difficult example is Defense’s air combat training systems, “which are used in all of our planes.” The challenge is that “all of our training is done in the U.S. and our ability to … use that system and compress into the higher band, the 1780-1850 [MHz band], causes us interference problems because we would run multiple missions in a smaller amount of spectrum,” she told lawmakers.

Takai emphasized the importance of balancing U.S. national security requirements with the demands of commercial wireless consumers. Defense spectrum is needed for critical war-fighting systems like unmanned aerial systems that have increased dramatically over the past decade, she said. Any repurposing of Defense Department spectrum holdings “must include decisions on comparable spectrum when necessary, adequate implementation funding, and amount of time to execute the transition, as well as very important rule making as it relates to how we will share,” she said.

Rep. Doris Matsui, D-Calif., emphasized the urgency of pairing the 1755-1780 MHz band with AWS-3 for auction by the 2015 deadline. “Now we are at a point where we need to make decisions,” she said. “Given the time crunch we are facing on the AWS-3 band, it is not in anyone’s interest to slow walk the process.” Matsui said she’s optimistic that once FCC Chairman nominee Tom Wheeler is confirmed, he will focus the commission’s attention on the 1755 MHz band.

Matsui asked Takai if she would “work in good faith” to find a solution. “Absolutely,” responded Takai. “We are committed to finding a solution to this issue, to making sure we make the best decisions in the 1755-1850 [MHz] band.” She said it will take collaboration of officials from Defense, the FCC and NTIA “to make the necessary decisions to move forward.”

Rep. Brett Guthrie, R-Ky., asked Karl Nebbia, NTIA associate administrator of the Office of Spectrum Management, what kind of “carrots” Congress could offer federal agencies to relocate spectrum. To incentivize federal agencies to relocate, “you have to actually offer something that will improve their situation, both with a place to go and a long term sense that” they will be permitted to stay, Nebbia said. “You have to have a sense that there is some stability. It’s not ‘we are going to give you incentive to move there tomorrow and then next week we're going to upset the apple cart again and ask you to move again.'”

CTIA Executive Vice President-Regulatory Affairs Christopher Guttman-McCabe touted the wireless industry’s roadmap for opening up the 1755-1850 MHz band, which was previously presented to the Commerce Spectrum Management Advisory Committee and recently to DOD and NTIA. The roadmap laid out a path for making the 1755-1780 MHz portion available in time to be paired and auctioned with the 2155-2180 MHz band by February 2015 (CD June 27 p14). “My father used to say you measure twice, you cut once,” said Guttman-McCabe. “We have been measuring this band for four years. It is time to cut.”

Dean Brenner, Qualcomm senior vice president-government affairs, supported President Barack Obama’s memorandum “to resolve the practical issues” to free up 1755-1780 MHz, Brenner said. Earlier this month, the administration committed $100 million to spectrum sharing and pushed cooperation between federal agencies and industry (CD June 17 p1). CEA Vice President-Congressional Affairs Veronica O'Connell urged lawmakers to “examine our own government’s use of spectrum and work to ensure that our nation’s resource is being fully and effectively utilized,” she said in a news release. “Consumer use of wireless is no longer a luxury, it is a necessity.”