U.S. prepares to combat spectrum drought

Increased demand for spectrum, and growing concern over spectrum scarcity, is turning into a public policy challenge for federal regulators around the world. An increasingly mobile workforce, falling prices for wireless devices and the growth in the wireless Internet are among the developments driving this increased demand. Dale Hatfield, chief of the Federal Communications Commission’s Office of Engineering and Technology, shared his personal views on this growing industry concern at the International Symposium on Advanced Radio Technologies last month in Boulder CO. The edited excerpt of his presentation below highlights the importance of spectrum sharing as one of three solutions for beating the "spectrum drought". The full text of his speech, including details on the other two techniques, can be found at:http://www.its.bldrdoc.gov/. FCC chairman Bill Kennard recently called attention to the potential for a "spectrum drought," especially in the valuable range below 3 GHz. (The FCC has) put forth a number of proposals and undertaken a number of initiatives that are aimed at preventing or alleviating this potential drought. As I see it, there are three basic techniques for reducing spectrum scarcity: (1) increasing the technical efficiency with which we use the spectrum resource, (2) increasing the amount of sharing among users of the scarce resource and (3) extending the upper- most range of the useable spectrum through improvements in devices and systems. I want to emphasize that I did not mention reallocation as a technique for alleviating scarcity. The reason I did not mention reallocation is that it is becoming increasingly difficult to find a new home for licensees/users displaced as a result of involuntary reallocation. Long-term reallocation works when there are large blocks of under-utilized spectrum, but those are no longer easy to find. Spectrum sharing Under this notion, the primary market is represented by the initial distribution of a block of spectrum through auctions, for example. In contrast to the primary market, the secondary – or after- market – is represented by the exchange or trading of spectrum after the initial distribution. The exchanges could be facilitated using brokers and dealers as intermediaries. One interesting variation of this idea of a secondary market is the potential "lease" of under-utilized spectrum on a temporary basis to meet short- or medium-term demand for a particular service. For example, a licensee, holding commercial or private mobile radio spectrum or fixed wireless access spectrum in anticipation of its own growth, might lease spectrum to another entity to allow the latter to meet some spike in demand. The lessor could gain revenues while maintaining control of spectrum that they feel they need to meet their long term strategic objectives while the lessee would be able to make a profit by providing service to otherwise under-served customers. Consumers would benefit from the availability of the service and manufacturers would potentially benefit by the sale of more product. We, as regulators representing the public, would benefit from the greater and more efficient use of the spectrum resource that we have been charged with managing in the public interest. On May 31, the FCC convened a public forum to gain insight into why there has not been more active secondary trading in spectrum and how the FCC could facilitate such trading. At the public forum, several panelists addressed possible rule changes that would facilitate the further development of secondary markets. We are currently reviewing the results of the forum and gathering additional information and ideas. We are also actively reviewing our existing rules to determine whether adjustments might be possible and desirable. Depending upon the outcome of that review, I would expect us to move on to a more formal proceeding such as a Notice of Inquiry or Notice of Proposed Rulemaking in the fairly near future.

U.S. prepares to combat spectrum drought

News | 10/16/2000 4:00 am EDT

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