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/ 06.28.2010 12:00PM
Obama Memo Orders Agencies to Free 500 MHz for Broadband
WASHINGTON:
President Barack Obama this morning issued a memo directing federal agencies to
coordinate on securing 500 MHz of radio frequency spectrum for broadband. The
memo endorses the Omnibus Broadband Initiative set forth in March by the
Federal Communications Commission under Chairman Julius Genachowski. Obama
first outlined the economic and social advancements he considers achievable through
the establishment of a national wireless broadband network.
“Expanded wireless broadband access will trigger the creation of innovative new
businesses, provide cost-effective connections in rural areas, increase
productivity, improve public safety, and allow for the development of mobile
telemedicine, telework, distance learning, and other new applications that will
transform Americans’ lives,” the memo stated. It was directed to the Secretary
of the Commerce Department, Gary Locke.
“To do so, we can use our American ingenuity to wring abundance from scarcity,
by finding ways to use spectrum more efficiently,” the memo continued. “We can
also unlock the value of otherwise underutilized spectrum and open new avenues
for spectrum users to derive value through the development of advanced,
situation-aware spectrum-sharing technologies.”
Several steps are outlined in the memo to secure the
resources for a national wireless broadband network. It calls on the Commerce
Department’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration to
support the FCC’s broadband initiative by making 500 MHz of spectrum available
over the next 10 years. The freed spectrum is to be suitable for mobile and
fixed wireless broadband, and licensed by the FCC for exclusive use or for
shared access with government users.
It directs the NTIA to work with the FCC to complete a
“specific plan and timetable” by Oct. 1, 2010, for freeing up the spectrum. The
FCC has already set up an action agenda of 60 proceedings to free up spectrum.
A Notice of Proposed Rulemaking to reclaim 120 MHz of broadcast spectrum is due
out in the third quarter.
The President’s memo sets up a Policy and Plans Steering
Group of federal agencies that use spectrum. The Secretaries of Defense,
Treasury, Transportation, Interior, Agriculture, Energy and Homeland Security;
NASA, the Federal Aviation Administration, the Attorney General, the Coast
Guard and the Director of National Intelligence will be represented in the
group advising the NTIA on spectrum reallocation.
The NTIA will also work with Defense, Justice, NASA, the
National Science Foundation and the National Institute of Standards and
Technology on spectrum-sharing technologies. The FCC is “strongly encouraged”
to participate with regard to the reallocation of “nonfederal government
spectrum.”
A progress report will be due from the NTIA next
March, another in the fall, and annually thereafter.
Lawrence Summers, director of the National Economic Council, is delivering an
address this morning in Washington on establishing a national broadband
network.
-- Deborah D. McAdams
Summers' speech is
covered at “Summers Emphasizes
Voluntary Return of Broadcast Spectrum”
The government does not intend to force broadcasters to turn
over spectrum for the National Broadband Plan. It will look for available
spectrum among government users as well as authorize a spectrum inventory.
See the full text of the presidential memo at...“Obama’s Memo to Free
500 MHz for Broadband”
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