The FCC's recent notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM) proposes the creation of new rules for the 28, 37, 39 and 64 – 71 GHz bands making them available for licensed, unlicensed and a shared uses for both local area and wide-area networks. This
spectrum frontier about 24 GHz is seen as a future home of 5G with its potential for greater capacity and speed to support next-generation phones. The NPRM seeks comments on the use of these bands to that can adapt to the pace of technological change and increased consumer demand.
The 500 MHz Initiative: A 2010 Presidential Memorandum directed the Secretary of Commerce,
working through NTIA, to collaborate with the Federal Communications
Commission to make available a total of 500 megahertz of Federal and non-federal spectrum over the next 10 years for mobile and fixed wireless
broadband use.
Federal Communications Commission (from NTIA website): The FCC is an
independent Federal regulatory agency responsible directly to Congress.
Established by the Communications Act of 1934, it is charged with
regulating interstate and international communications by radio,
television, wire, satellite, and cable. Its jurisdiction covers the 50
states and territories, the District of Columbia, and U.S. Possessions.
The FCC is directed by five commissioners appointed by the President
and confirmed by the Senate for five-year terms, except when filling an
unexpired term. The President designates one commissioner to serve as
chairman. As the chief executive officer of the Commission, the chairman
delegates management and administrative responsibility to the Managing
Director. Certain other functions are delegated to staff units and
bureaus and to committees of commissioners. The commissioners hold
regular open and closed agenda meetings and special meetings. They also
may act between meetings by "circulation," a procedure by which a
document is submitted to each commissioner individually for
consideration and official action. The Commission staff is organized by function. There are six operating Bureaus and 10 Staff Offices.
NTIA’s Office of Spectrum
Management (OSM) is dedicated to protecting the vital Federal government
operations that use spectrum while also supporting the growth of
commercial wireless broadband and technologies in America. Many federal
agencies rely on the use of spectrum, a limited resource, to execute
their core missions. There is also increasing demand for spectrum to
meet the wireless broadband needs of consumers and businesses, paving
the way for continued innovation and economic growth.
OSM principally
manages the Federal government’s use of the radio frequency spectrum,
ensuring that the America’s domestic and international spectrum needs
are satisfied. To achieve this, OSM receives assistance and advice from
the
Interdepartment Radio Advisory Committee (IRAC) and carries out this responsibility by:
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establishing and issuing policy regarding allocations and regulations governing the Federal spectrum use;
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developing plans for the peacetime and wartime use of the spectrum;
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preparing for, participating in, and implementing the results of international radio conferences;
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assigning frequencies;
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maintaining spectrum use databases;
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reviewing Federal agencies' new telecommunications systems and certifying that spectrum will be available;
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providing the technical engineering expertise needed to perform
specific spectrum resources assessments and automated computer
capabilities needed to carry out these investigations;
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participating in all aspects of the Federal government's communications related emergency readiness activities; and
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participating in Federal government telecommunications and automated information systems security activities.
Another of OSM’s primary activities is implementing the Obama
administration’s commitment to nearly double the amount of commercial
spectrum. In 2010, a Presidential Memorandum directed the Secretary of
Commerce, working through NTIA, to collaborate with the Federal
Communications Commission to make available a total of
500 megahertz
of Federal and nonfederal spectrum over the next 10 years for mobile
and fixed wireless broadband use. This is one of the areas for which the
Commerce Spectrum Management Advisory Committee (CSMAC) will provide recommendations to NTIA.
Portal Opens for AWS-3 Spectrum Sharing Coordination NTIA’s Institute for Telecommunication Sciences (ITS) recently
launched a new online site that enables commercial entities and federal
agencies to coordinate spectrum use in the 1695-1710 MHz band, one of
three bands recently made available by auction for Advanced Wireless
Services (AWS). The new NTIA portal fulfills an important requirement to
enable sharing in the 1695-1710 MHz portion of this prime spectrum.
Although many federal incumbents will eventually relocate out of the
AWS bands, relocation is not feasible for agencies that operate
meteorological satellite Earth stations in the 1695-1710 MHz band. To
make this band available for sharing, the Federal Communications
Commission devised rules that require commercial auction winners to
successfully coordinate with federal incumbents prior to operating in
geographic areas (coordination zones) around these stations, which will
continue to operate indefinitely.
Federal incumbents , including the Air Force, Army, Navy, Department
of the Interior and National Atmospheric and Oceanic Administration,
turned to ITS to create an online spectrum coordination portal for
spectrum sharing in the 1695-1710 MHz AWS-3 band. A team of 10 ITS
developers, documentation experts and quality assurance personnel worked
over a period of five months to develop the portal. The solution was
designed to be cost efficient, modular and scalable, combining
commercial off-the-shelf hardware and software into an advanced
web-based architecture. Hosted by NTIA, the final product is a
customized web-based database storage software solution that manages the
flow of information between commercial wireless operators deploying
broadband wireless networks and federal agencies who have meteorological
satellite Earth station operations in the identified coordination
zones.
The portal enables the commercial operators and incumbents to
exchange information and communicate about radio communication
engineering issues to enable successful sharing. It is available for use
seven days a week, 24 hours a day at
https://rfcp.ntia.doc.gov.
