The rise of the smartphone and the Internet of Things in recent years have left politicians and regulators scrambling to find ways to meet consumer demand for space on the wireless spectrum.
The spectrum is the span of radio frequencies that enables long-distance phone calls, photos and video sharing on social media and transmission of GPS signals to help guide travelers to their destination. But the spectrum, which is owned by the federal government, has only so much room.
While the Obama administration laid some foundation for expanding wireless spectrum for commercial use, a Republican-led Congress and a new Trump administration are now poised to make drastic changes.
On Jan. 3, the first day of the 115th Congress, Sen. John Thune reintroduced the MOBILE NOW Act, aimed at expanding the amount of the spectrum that is available for commercial licensing. The bill would also help streamline infrastructure development for next-generation “5G” services. A prior version of the bill was introduced last year, where it passed the committee by a voice vote, but didn’t make it to a vote on the Senate or House floor.
Calling it an “early technology priority,” the South Dakota Republican and chairman of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation said the MOBILE NOW Act is “a gateway to faster and more extensive wireless coverage that empowers more Americans to use technologies requiring a connection to the Internet.” The bill has bipartisan support, as it is co-sponsored by Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson, Fla., and passed the committee last week.
The telecom industry applauded Thune’s bill. “The MOBILE NOW Act will help address the growing demand for connectivity, and more spectrum solutions will also be needed — particularly to keep the U.S. competitive as nations around the world push forward with plans for next-generation wireless,” said James Reid, senior vice president for government affairs at the Telecommunications Industry Association, said in a statement.
Others, like Doug Brake, a telecom policy analyst at the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation, think the legislation played it too safe.
“MOBILE NOW is an excellent step in the right direction, but I think it could go further, particularly in developing institutions and mechanisms for faster and more direct transfers of spectrum,” Brake told the Washington Examiner. “Legislation that would ease the process by which private actors help federal users upgrade old systems would be very useful.”
The spectrum is managed by both the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, which is in charge of spectrum used by the federal government, and the Federal Communications Commission, which dictates spectrum use by commercial entities and public safety agencies.
The issue is that there is only a finite amount of spectrum available. Wireless operators such as Verizon and T-Mobile constantly find they need more spectrum to cope with the rapid rise in wireless traffic used by billions of devices on a daily basis.
Last February, networking-equipment maker Cisco released a paper that estimated global mobile data traffic will grow by a factor of eight over the next five years.
As part of an effort to alleviate mounting traffic concerns, discussions have focused on sharing spectrum between the government and the private sector ever since the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology recommended spectrum sharing in 2012. But federal agencies so far have balked at the idea because of the possibility of oversaturated bands that could lead to a disruption in service when it is really needed.
For example, Ligado Networks last year sought an auction license from the FCC to share spectrum in the 1675-1680 MHz band with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, but the environmental research agency doesn’t seem likely to approve the plan. A December letter to Obama’s then-commerce secretary, Penny Pritzker, from the heads of the American Meteorological Society and the American Geophysical Union, makes the case against the Ligado plan, saying that “sharing 1675-1680 MHz with a commercial entity will almost certainly interfere seriously with non-federal government users of this band who, in partnership with NOAA, play a crucial role in saving life and property from weather hazards.”
Some agencies, however, do seem open to working with private entities to help them upgrade and improve old spectrum technology capabilities. A multi-agency effort being led by the Federal Aviation Administration seeks to give the commercial industry a chance to come up with an innovative way to throw together surveillance, air safety and weather radar applications into a single system by 2024, which could free up spectrum for commercial use, according to Federal Computer Week.
Nelson’s bill looks to offer relief by codifying one of President Obama’s executive orders from 2010, which established a goal of 500 MHz of federal and military spectrum for private-sector use by 2020. A White House fact sheet in June said the NTIA and FCC were already halfway to reaching that goal through auctions, earning over $40 billion.
Progress could also be made in the executive branch. President Trump’s pick for commerce secretary, billionaire investor Wilbur Ross, said during his confirmation hearing this month that he supports providing a boost to the commercial wireless industry.
“We need more spectrum in the private sector and I will try my best to help convince those government agencies that have spectrum and don’t really need it to permit it to be commercialized,” Ross said.
As secretary of the Commerce Department, Ross would be in direct control of the NTIA.
The FCC too is poised to make headway in opening up government bandwidth for commercial use. Last week, Trump picked Republican commissioner Ajit Pai to lead the agency. While Pai often didn’t agree with the agenda pushed by his Democratic predecessor, Thomas Wheeler, he has expressed support for Wheeler’s efforts to free up spectrum to support the telecom industry’s foray into 5G technology. The FCC unanimously voted to open nearly 5Ghz of high-frequency spectrum for 5G last summer.
During an interview with the the Washington Examiner in March of 2016, Pai said he wants to facilitate wireless companies’ ability to install infrastructure on federal lands and would work to get more spectrum out in the marketplace.
“As the Internet becomes an increasingly mobile experience, and the applications on mobile devices become more bandwidth intensive, it is imperative that the FCC ensure that there’s much more licensed and unlicensed spectrum that people can use,” Pai said. “Whether it’s licensed spectrum that could be purchased in an auction by a wireless company, or unlicensed spectrum that innovators could use to build Wi-Fi-based applications, I think we need an all-of-the-above approach when it comes to the airwaves.”
