Solution to 3G problem in the U.S. rests in military’s hands, says CTIA

As the United States continues to struggle to find a suitable solution to allocating spectrum for future third-generation networks, the American military is already finding how difficult it can be to use current spectrum while training military corps abroad. The following is an edited excerpt of testimony given by the Cellular Telecommunications and Internet Association’s president and CEO Thomas Wheeler to the House of Representatives Sub-committee on Telecommunications, Trade and Consumer Protection. As we look to the challenges of American national security, it is increasingly apparent that our security is dependent upon not only traditional military capabilities, but also the strength of our economic competitiveness at home and abroad. We presently find ourselves challenged to upgrade military systems and to supply each and every one of our fighting men and women every technological advantage possible. We also find ourselves challenged to maintain our positions as world leaders in technology, especially as the world prepares to debut the next generation of the wireless Internet. At few times in this nation’s history have the solutions to both these challenges been more closely intertwined… In countries like Japan, Germany, Great Britain and France, the governments have made available blocks of spectrum for next-generation wireless services that approximately double the amount of spectrum the U.S. government has made available to its wireless industry. Militarily, there is almost uniform agreement that the new battlefield will increasingly be an information battlefield. Satellite infrared imaging, for instance, will enable soldiers to see behind the next hill. Real time intelligence updates and maps will show the enemy’s latest positions. Unless our soldiers are going to be dragging wires behind them as they deploy, these capabilities are going to require the airwaves for delivery… The problem is that the airwaves that the rest of the world is allocating or otherwise plans to use for expanded wireless services are the very same spectrum that the American military utilizes for its communications. In the next five years, the ability of the American military to deploy or train abroad will be compromised by hundreds of millions of consumers using wireless devices in the spectrum to which U.S. military radios are tuned. Already growth of wireless technology abroad has begun to impact U.S. military capabilities. A recent Department of Defense analysis reported on the "nonavailability of alternate bands to provide the high-end frequency component" of command and control systems. The reason these airwaves were not available, according to the report, was the growth of mobile phones. Decisions already made by other countries have, are, and will affect our national security capabilities for years to come… The seriousness of this situation is exemplified in the joint U.S.-Korean training exercise "Team Spirit" held in late 1999. In order for the U.S. radios to work, several channels of the Korean cellular network had to be shut down. According to a May 22, 2000 article in Aviation Week & Space technology, "there were some U.S. weapons that currently aren’t allowed to operate in South Korea out of fear they would interfere with civilian systems"… No wonder Major General J.D. Bryan, vice director of the defense Information Systems Agency, recently warned, "if we’re not real careful, we face chaos in the wireless environment"… Fortunately, there appear to be solutions. At a time of concern over budget-busting defense spending, the world’s re-allocation into domestic U.S. military frequencies paradoxically provides a solution. Because the rest of the world is rapidly increasing the number of wireless users in these same frequencies, the U.S. wireless industry would like to use them as well. Should the federal government decide to reassign the military to other spectrum and auction these airwaves, the resulting billions of dollars could pay for both the move to new frequencies and the necessary upgrades to strategic and tactical equipment. The Department of Defense is sitting on a valuable domestic asset whose value can be utilized to help solve the military’s international spectrum problem.

Solution to 3G problem in the U.S. rests in military’s hands, says CTIA

News | August 7, 2001

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Solution to 3G problem in the U.S. rests in military’s hands, says CTIA

News | August 7, 2001

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