The National Telecommunications and Information Administration wants to make sure it educates stakeholders on how much prime spectrum is used exclusively by federal agencies, says Paige Atkins, NTIA’s associate administrator-Office of Spectrum Management. Government officials, wireless industry representatives, and others who argue that more federal spectrum should be freed up for commercial use regularly say that 60% or even 70% of prime spectrum is controlled by federal agencies, but NTIA says the percentage is actually much lower.

“One of our goals is to try to educate and make sure that the most accurate information is out there,” Ms. Atkins told TRDaily in an interview. “We need more accurate information in order to make good policy decisions.”

In spectrum from 225 megahertz to 3.7 gigahertz, the federal government has exclusive access to 17%, non-federal users have exclusive access to 31%, and 52% is shared between federal and non-federal entities, according to Ms. Atkins.

Federal agencies have exclusive or dominant – where they are the primary users – access to 32% of those frequencies –– while non-federal entities have exclusive or dominant use to 33%, Ms. Atkins said. In 35% of the spectrum, there is equal access, she said. The issue of how much spectrum is controlled by federal entities was discussed in August at a meeting of the Commerce Spectrum Management Advisory Committee (CSMAC).

NTIA Administrator Lawrence E. Strickling called “silliness” contentions that federal agencies control 70% of “prime, beachfront spectrum” (TRDaily, Aug. 26). Mr. Strickling also addressed disputes over how much spectrum has been freed up for commercial wireless broadband services toward the Obama administration’s 500 MHz goal by 2020.

NTIA says the total is 245 MHz, while CTIA counts only 135 MHz. CTIA counts 10 MHz less of WCS spectrum and doesn’t count the 3550-3650 MHz band, which the FCC adopted rules to free up earlier this year (TRDaily, April 17). In a report released in June (TRDaily, June 22), CTIA said that “much of that spectrum is available for non-exclusive, authorized-by-rule use.”

At the August CSMAC meeting, Mr. Strickling said, “Whether it’s made available on a shared basis, whether it’s made available on an unlicensed basis – we have to look at all of these options to meet spectrum needs.”

Ms. Atkins said the 3.5 GHz band “satisfies all requirements in supporting wireless broadband – whether licensed or unlicensed.” She also said the use of a special access system (SAS) as well as possibly environmental sensing, which will be used in the 3.5 GHz band, could possibly be employed in other channels to enable sharing between federal and non-federal users.

Looking ahead to other spectrum that can help meet the 500 MHz goal, Ms. Atkins noted that the FCC plans to hold its incentive auction of TV broadcast spectrum next year.

She also cited efforts to free up spectrum in the 5350-5470 MHz and 5850-5925 MHz bands. Regarding the upper band, she pointed out that the Department of Transportation has published a preliminary test plan, “and we’re hoping to have a public workshop here very shortly to engage in discussion around the test plan.”

Ms. Atkins said “one of our major stumbling blocks” to testing sharing in both of the 5 GHz bands is the lack of commercial prototype devices.

As for other spectrum, Ms. Atkins said federal agencies missed a June deadline for providing NTIA the results of quantitative assessments on five bands. She said there is no “hard date” for when they will be submitted. After that, further study of those bands will be done.

The mantra of NTIA and others in the administration on spectrum is the need to share and that finding a large number of frequencies for reallocation for exclusive use by wireless carriers “is not sustainable.”

During the interview, Ms. Atkins was asked about the pushback from industry to this view. While the wireless industry acknowledges that sharing in some cases is the best and perhaps only option for carriers to get access to spectrum, it also says reallocation for exclusive use is the “gold standard.”

“We understand the desire for industry to get exclusive licensed spectrum, but … it’s getting harder and harder,” Ms. Atkins said. “I think traditionally, the carriers and commercial industry have resisted spectrum sharing, however, I have seen some of the carriers starting to pivot, particularly as they look at how they can best leverage unlicensed spectrum as well, such as for LTE-Unlicensed, which inherently as an unlicensed service … would be a shared service.”

Ms. Atkins also stressed the importance of the federal government and industry continuing to work together to “build confidence in sharing.” Spectrum sharing, including bi-directional sharing, will continue to be a focus of the CSMAC. On the bi-directional front, NTIA is asking the panel to look at ways to enable federal agencies to get access to non-federal frequencies on short-, mid-, and long-term timeframes.

Regarding the 2015 World Radiocommunication Conference in Geneva next month, Ms. Atkins said that the U.S. is “in very good shape going into the conference with our top priority items.” The top two priorities for the U.S. are identifying spectrum for mobile broadband services and establishing a regulatory framework to allow existing satellite networks to be used for command and control of unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) for beyond line of sight flight. The U.S. also supports a number of bands for study ahead of the WRC-19 for use for 5G services. “I think we’ve made a lot of progress across the IMT 1.1 bands,” Ms. Atkins said, referring the spectrum to be considered for mobile broadband use.

But she acknowledged that allocating the C-band “has been one of the more challenging [issues] in terms of gaining consensus,” so our proposal is really confined to Region 2, which is basically the Americas. The U.S. favors a mobile allocation in the 3400-3700 MHz band, but it opposes allocations higher in that band, which some others support.

Commenting on the FCC’s plan to adopt a 5G spectrum notice of proposed rulemaking at its Oct. 22 meeting, Ms. Atkins said, “I think it’s always good to reinforce a U.S. priority, and this is a U.S. priority in general.”- Paul Kirby, paul.kirby@wolterskluwer.com

Courtesy TRDaily