WASHINGTON-The Bush administration’s spectrum agenda is showing signs of losing momentum and direction, a development that has prompted frustrated National Telecommunications and Information Administration officials to quietly push forward on a presidential spectrum-policy implementation plan that has been awaiting White House action for months.
Bush’s spectrum initiative is designed to improve management of the airwaves, but likely will do little to address more pressing wireless challenges.
The fanfare and energy surrounding President Bush’s spectrum-policy initiative and the Federal Communications Commission’s Spectrum Policy Task Force just a couple years ago have dissipated.
One industry source described the Spectrum Policy Task Force effectively dead under FCC Chairman Kevin Martin. David Fiske, an FCC spokesman, said the task force remains intact, but admitted there has been little activity.
The situation could undermine Bush’s stated goal of achieving universal and affordable broadband access in 2007, which in turn could lead to continued criticism of the United States’ below-the-pack ranking in broadband Internet penetration. Experts see a wireless solution-quite possibly using WiMAX technology and broadband service over power lines-as possible ways to bring competition to a broadband market dominated by the landline telephone and cable TV oligopoly.
WiMAX will need the right spectrum. Today, the most promising spectrum is the 700 MHz frequencies lawmakers are trying to extract from digitally bound TV broadcasters, but that is far from certain.
Ever since spring, when NTIA-a Commerce Department unit that advises the president on telecom policy-sent the White House a blueprint for implementing last year’s policy recommendations from federal, state and local government, and private industry representatives, there was strong expectation the White House would sign the plan. That has yet to occur.
The recommendations include a test bed for assessing increased spectrum sharing between government and industry and improved spectrum management tools.
Privately, NTIA officials, according to sources, are flummoxed and angered by a lack of White House support on the spectrum-policy initiative. But they are trying to put the best face possible on a difficult situation, possibly going overboard in public-relations efforts.
When asked whether the agency has been waiting for presidential approval of the administration’s spectrum-policy implementation plan, NTIA spokesman Clyde Ensslin, replied, “Not to my knowledge.” Pressed further on whether NTIA anticipates any White House-level action on the spectrum implementation plan, Ensslin refused to answer.
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At the Defense Spectrum Summit 2005 last week in Annapolis, Md., Badri Younes, director of spectrum management at the Department of Defense, expressed a different understanding of the status of spectrum initiative action plan.
“The implementation of the spectrum plan is at the White House waiting for the president’s signature,” said Younes.
The implementation plan is key because it sets in motions various activities designed to improve a spectrum-management regime criticized by the Government Accountability Office and acknowledged by shareholders as outdated in an era where new technologies are disrupting established regulations.
Ensslin said NTIA next month expects to submit a progress report on an implementation plan, even though the White House has yet to officially consent to it.
With the White House still not having taken any official or unofficial action on NTIA’s spectrum-policy implementation plan, NTIA officials made a strategic decision to move forward without the administration’s formal blessing.
Despite having had the implementation plan in hand since spring, NTIA officials only recently have begun to disclose outlines of the plan to targeted audiences.
NTIA chief Michael Gallagher, well regarded by industry for his advocacy of technology and market-based solutions, did just that at last week’s Defense Spectrum Summit. On Sept. 15, John Kneuer, deputy head of NTIA, did the same, listing by name seven implementation plan projects in a presentation to the Law Seminars International Spectrum Management Conference.
What is unclear is whether White House inaction on NTIA’s spectrum-policy implementation plan is due to it being given low priority or whether the Bush administration is having second thoughts about backing it.
Meantime, thorny spectrum issues remain for the administration, Congress and industry before the economic and consumer benefits of new technologies, new spectrum and new policies can be realized.
- 5 GHz WiFi. It will be three years this January since NTIA announced an agreement with DoD to earmark hundreds of megahertz for 5 GHz Wi-Fi in a way that avoids interference to military radar. The new 5 GHz spectrum has yet to make its way into the commercial arena. Government officials said lab testing of dynamic frequency selection-enable Wi-Fi units went well using equipment from Atheros Communications and Cisco Systems Inc., but not so well for Motorola Inc.-supplied equipment. Field testing comes next in December. If all goes well, new 5 GHz WiFi products could be on retail shelves by spring.
- 3G. In December, NTIA must identify the cost of relocating military users forced to vacate the 1710-1755 MHz band to make room for third-generation wireless services. But will next year’s FCC auction of that spectrum raise enough money to cover DoD relocation costs? “The [mobile-phone] mergers in the commercial sector reduce the value of spectrum,” said Edmond Thomas, former FCC chief engineer and now partner in the law firm of Harris, Wiltshire & Grannis. “Those mergers bring with them spectrum capacity. The number of people who need spectrum in the future is less.”
- UWB. Standard setting is a mess. “It is difficult to see what is happening in the standards community,” said NTIA’s Gallagher. “The industry is missing an opportunity. The important thing is getting product into the marketplace.
- Government-industry spectrum sharing. DoD is the largest user of federal government airwaves. But friction between the armed forces and civilian spectrum managers at the Pentagon complicates matters.
- Public-safety spectrum and interoperability. A lot of activity, but no resolution in the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks and deadly hurricanes of 2005.
- WRC-07. The next World Radiocommunication Conference is scheduled for 2007. The consensus is the preparation scheme for international telecom conferences is inadequate. If the process is not improved, the United States risks losing ground in the global wireless marketplace.
- Brain drain. Seasoned spectrum managers are retiring and there is not a well-designed plan to replace them in government.