Posted by Barlow Keener

In 2003, President Bush issued an Executive Order entitled “Spectrum Policy for the 21st Century” ordering the Department of Commerce’s NTIA to identify spectrum and propose policies for the spectrum’s more efficient use. The Federal Government Spectrum Task Force was created led by NTIA and consisting of all the departments except for the FCC which was encouraged to provide input but not made a member. In 2008, NTIA released the 248 page “Federal Strategic Spectrum Plan.” The Report in large part focused on proposals of various federal departments to bring efficiencies to the spectrum:

This National Plan will address spectrum requirements for essential Federal missions, including national and homeland security, critical infrastructure, transportation, law enforcement; state, local and tribal public safety spectrum needs; and requirements of non-Federal entities for spectrum to support new services and systems.

The NTIA Federal Strategic Spectrum Plan did not address the politically sensitive items like the White Spaces or other spectrum that may be inefficiently used such as ham radio spectrum or Citizens-Band.

Last week, Senators John Kerry (D-Mass.), Chairman of the Commerce Subcommittee on Communications, Technology, and the Internet, and Olympia Snowe (R-ME), a senior member of the Commerce Committee, proposed the Radio Spectrum Inventory Act that would create a new spectrum plan. The question is what is the purpose of the Act and will the Act be an improvement over the prior NTIA report. Kerry’s team raised an interesting focus of the purpose which cellco’s may respond not be please with. Kerry’s office stated that purpose is to gain “a clear sense of how the spectrum is currently being used.” If the spectrum is not being used, but “warehoused” (the word used by the Kerry spokesperson) such unused “public” assets could lead to use it or lose it requirement. The inventory would be due in 6 months from the date of the act. Kerry emphasized that the public, not the license holders, own the spectrum: “Our public airwaves belong to the American people, and we need to make certain we are putting them to good use in the best interests of those citizens.”

While certainly the Radio Spectrum Inventory Act is a “wait and see” as it is only proposed legislation, Kerry appears to be preparing the ground work for either a new white spaces initiative (possibly CB radio spectrum or Ham Radio spectrum?) or for imposing a use it or lose it requirement for existing but poorly used licensed license spectrum such as 2.3Mhz or 2.5Mhz.