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.
- Presidential Memorandum
- Ten Year Plan and Timetable to Make Available 500 MHz of Spectrum for Wireless Broadband
- An Assessment of the Viability of Accommodating Wireless Broadband in the 1755-1850 MHz Band
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:
- establishing and issuing policy regarding allocations and regulations governing the Federal spectrum use;
- developing plans for the peacetime and wartime use of the spectrum;
- preparing for, participating in, and implementing the results of international radio conferences;
- assigning frequencies;
- maintaining spectrum use databases;
- reviewing Federal agencies' new telecommunications systems and certifying that spectrum will be available;
- providing the technical engineering expertise needed to perform specific spectrum resources assessments and automated computer capabilities needed to carry out these investigations;
- participating in all aspects of the Federal government's communications related emergency readiness activities; and
- participating in Federal government telecommunications and automated information systems security activities.
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.
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