CSMAC Asked To Look More Closely at Government Sharing of Commercial Spectrum

In a blog post earlier this month, FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler said the FCC will look at bilateral sharing of spectrum (see 1508030071), though he provided few specifics. The Department of Defense has advocated rules under which government agencies also could share underutilized commercial bands (see 1503190041). “What elements should a regulatory framework include for enabling flexible federal access to non-federal spectrum on a shared basis across a broad range of short-, mid-, and long-range time frames?” asked a question posed by NTIA in a document circulated by NTIA to CSMAC members.

NTIA asked how it can “balance the ‘regulatory certainty’ that commercial spectrum users and federal agencies need to make longer-term investment decisions for shared access to be viable.” It asked what options “are available for the Federal Government to incentivize exclusive-use licensees to engage in shared access?”

“Some folks have told me that there is no regulatory certainty, so I put it in quotes,” said Paige Atkins, NTIA associate administrator-Office of Spectrum Management. NTIA wants CSMAC to look at “the whole breadth of timelines,” she said. NTIA will present the group with various “use cases” to show various things federal agencies hope to do through bidirectional, or two-way, sharing, she said.

“I just urge extraordinary care in the wording of this,” said CSMAC member Harold Furchtgott-Roth, former FCC commissioner. “Licensees, particularly those that have paid a lot of money for licenses, may have some concern about federal agencies raising questions about federal access to spectrum in which they assume they have gotten some degree of exclusivity.” Furchtgott-Roth acknowledged that “exclusivity” isn't an absolute concept and all spectrum licenses come with “limitations.”

CSMAC member Steve Sharkey, a T-Mobile engineer, said it's important that NTIA looks at how to “incentivize” two-way sharing. That would “imply more of a carrot and a mutually beneficial arrangement” rather than “something that really limits use in a way that’s negative for the licensees,” Sharkey said.

In two recent proceedings, the FCC adopted “use it or share it” provisions allowing “opportunistic access” to licensed spectrum when it's not being used, said CSMAC member Michael Calabrese, director of the Wireless Future Project at New America Foundation’s Open Technology Institute. “You don’t want to diminish the value of what [licensees] purchase, but if they’re not actually using it, it remains a public resource.”

“We can all put our own gloss on i​t,” said CSMAC member Janice Obuchowski, president of Freedom Technologies and former NTIA administrator. “Carrots as well as sticks are important.” As the world faces spectrum scarcity, there is “a lot of misinformation out there about who’s doing what to whom,” she said.

Cost Recovery Report

CSMAC approved the final report by its Spectrum Sharing Cost Recovery Subcommittee after a short discussion. The report said, “Federal agencies have no source of reimbursement for costs related to facilitating band sharing (e.g., unlicensed) or other improvements in spectrum efficiency unrelated to the agency mission.” It cited various impediments. The Commercial Spectrum Enhancement Act (CSEA), for example, generally limits reimbursements to “relocation or sharing costs” for bands that are auctioned, the report said.

There is no way under the CSEA that federal agencies can be reimbursed for the upfront costs of sharing spectrum, said Charla Rath, Verizon vice president-wireless policy development and co-chair of the subcommittee. “You have to have an auction.” Following the 2006 AWS-1 auction, one carrier tried to move government users out of the band earlier than expected, but couldn't do so under the law, Rath said.

Sharing in the 3.5 GHz band requires installation of a passive sensing system to protect federal agencies that use the spectrum, said Calabrese, the other co-chair. “Imagine if that was a cost that the Navy was going to shoulder and wanted reimbursed, this would presumably help enable the FCC to authorize the spectrum access system to collect fees and replenish the Spectrum Relocation Fund for upfront reimbursement … to pay for that sensing system.”

Official Spectrum Count

NTIA Administrator Larry Strickling opened Wednesday’s meeting on a feisty note, saying the administration has made available 245 MHz of new spectrum, toward meeting the administration’s goal of 500 MHz of additional spectrum for broadband in 10 years. “I’ve seen some quibbling” on that number, Strickling said. When NTIA unveiled the number in July, CTIA questioned NTIA’s math (see 1507080035). CTIA declined to comment Wednesday.

“I really don’t think there should be any dispute,” Strickling said. The rules are the same as in the game of baseball, he said. “There’s one official scorekeeper and that is us.” Strickling disputed any notion that federal agencies control 70 percent of beachfront spectrum. “It’s just not true,” he said. Exclusive federal use is closer to 17 percent, he said. “Maybe it’s just a question of people being a little [dyslexic] and switching the one and seven around.” A 2012 report by the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology said the federal government is the dominant user of the 51.5 percent of prime spectrum shared between the government and industry.

Atkins said at the close of the meeting that NTIA has made progress in making the 3.5 GHz shared spectrum band a reality, focusing in part on sensing and the launch of a spectrum access system. “We’re very focused,” she said. “There’s still a lot of work ahead of us, we know that. I think everybody knows that.” NTIA is looking at similar sensing issues in the various unlicensed national information infrastructure (UNII) bands in 5 GHz spectrum, she said.

NTIA is also focused on the AWS-3 transition, as licensees work with federal users to move them off the spectrum sold in the auction, Atkins said. CTIA and the Competitive Carriers Association hosted a meeting in June to discuss various transition issues, she said. “This was, I think, a very well received and productive event. It included discussions around expectations, processes and tools, that will facilitate the transition.” Formal coordination will start in October or early November, she said.

November’s World Radiocommunication Conference also looms large, Atkins said. “We can’t forget that we’re in full throes for WRC-15 preparation,” she said. “It’s critical to all of us, whether you’re industry or government, for operational utility, market potential, there are many implications.” Last week’s Inter-American Telecommunication Commission (CITEL) meeting in Ottawa was a success for the U.S., Atkins said. “Regional positions are very important,” she said. “For the U.S. to be part of a regional position going forward is very important to us.”

Atkins said the top two U.S. priorities for WRC-15 are identifying additional spectrum for mobile broadband, globally, and identifying spectrum to support unmanned aircraft systems. “We made a lot of progress on both fronts,” she said. Another major priority is getting an agenda item at a future WRC to look at spectrum above 6 GHz. “There’s great and growing interest” in high-band spectrum, “particularly in millimeter-wave spectrum and we do expect a future item to come out, one way or another,” she said. CITEL is proposing a look at a number of specific bands from 10 to 65 GHz, she said.