The Trump administration is developing a national spectrum strategy, NTIA Administrator David Redl said at a Commerce Spectrum Management Advisory Committee meeting Wednesday. The Obama administration took an active role on spectrum policy, promoting sharing over exclusive use licenses in many cases, but the Trump administration has been relatively quiet (see 1712270032). Redl said NTIA is working with the administration on a plan. FCC and industry officials welcomed the administration’s long-awaited deep dive.

FCC International Bureau and eighth-floor staffers had meetings with satellite operators in recent days on the draft non-geostationary orbit (NGSO) satellite rules on next week's meeting agenda, show filings in docket 16-408. Some experts forecast 5-0 commissioner approval (see 1709110030).

T-Mobile Chief Technology Officer Neville Ray met with FCC Chairman Ajit Pai and Commissioners Mignon Clyburn, Mike O’Rielly and Brendan Carr on the big issues now before the agency of most concern to the company, said a filing in dockets including 12-268. Efforts to deploy incentive auction spectrum and concerns about ATSC 3.0 were among the topics covered. It's important to have "sufficient spectrum in the low, mid, and high bands to support competitive 5G deployments,” T-Mobile said. “The existing 3.5 GHz framework should be revised because the current structure will not drive investment and does not align with international use of the band for 5G. ... [T]he 3.5 GHz spectrum is a core band for 5G deployment around the world and ... the U.S. will miss a huge opportunity if it does not create a structure aligned with global 5G requirements.”

T-Mobile Chief Technology Officer Neville Ray met with FCC Chairman Ajit Pai and Commissioners Mignon Clyburn, Mike O’Rielly and Brendan Carr on the big issues now before the agency of most concern to the company, said a filing in dockets including 12-268. Efforts to deploy incentive auction spectrum and concerns about ATSC 3.0 were among the topics covered. It's important to have "sufficient spectrum in the low, mid, and high bands to support competitive 5G deployments,” T-Mobile said. “The existing 3.5 GHz framework should be revised because the current structure will not drive investment and does not align with international use of the band for 5G. ... [T]he 3.5 GHz spectrum is a core band for 5G deployment around the world and ... the U.S. will miss a huge opportunity if it does not create a structure aligned with global 5G requirements.”

The debate over 5G and fixed satellite service sharing of the 28 GHz band increasingly involves power flux density (PFD) and proposed limits on that measure of signal power level at the receiver. "As long as you will be sharing spectrum between satellite and terrestrial systems, this is the issue," Farooq Khan, CEO of 5G technology company Phazr, told us. "The back and forth over precise technical limits on power is entirely normal," satellite industry consultant Tim Farrar told us in an email, pointing to such issues as the Globalstar/Wi-Fi in 5 GHz or the GPS industry's past challenges to Ligado. "I'd expect the FCC to be leaning in favor of terrestrial interests because that is the political priority."