Spectrum Sharing a Long-term Process, Rysavy Report Says
Spectrum sharing presents a tantalizing potential to improve efficient use of spectrum, but the technology and policy fixes needed to make it a reality are at least a decade off, wireless network expert Peter Rysavy said in a report released Monday (http://xrl.us/bng3q5). Underutilized government-only frequency bands will be need to be restructured so non-governmental and commercial entities can share them, the report said. It’s entirely possible for commercial and government entities to share these spectrum bands, but it will take time to determine how they can integrate, Rysavy said during a news conference Monday sponsored by Mobile Future. Getting information from federal agencies on how much spectrum they use can be challenging, an aide to the House Commerce Committee told the event.
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Getting spectrum sharing to be widely used “is a long-term process,” Rysavy said. “And we are on day one -- the first step -- of a long journey.” Last week, the Federal Spectrum Working Group of lawmakers asked the NTIA for more information on the government’s spectrum use, including the amount of spectrum each federal agency that uses frequencies received in 2011 (CD July 11 p14).
"That’s part of the challenge here, getting the right information in front of policymakers,” said the aide, David Redl, House Commerce majority counsel. “So hopefully that letter will get us some good information for our bosses to work from, and the series of meetings we've been having with stakeholders -- both at the staff level and the member level -- will give us a positive dialogue to work from.” NTIA declined to comment on the letter. “You're essentially asking the government to give up one of its assets,” Redl said of requests for agencies to provide more information on their spectrum use.
The NTIA’s own working groups are expected to start reviewing by year’s end whether sharing of government bands is a possibility, said Mary Brown, Cisco director of government affairs. That’s the best available way to determine how much work will be needed to make spectrum sharing a reality, she said. Since spectrum sharing’s prospects remain uncertain, carriers must continue to implement shorter-term fixes, Rysavy said in the report. “The bottom-line reality is that there is no ‘magic bullet’ spectrum-sharing technology currently in the pipeline that can adequately address the short-term and mid-term spectrum challenges faced by American consumers and our economy.”