Cellular carriers, DOD debate spectrum needs

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By Bob Brewin

(IDG) -- The Department of Defense (DOD) would gladly consider sharing its portion of the radio frequency spectrum with commercial wireless operators -- if those companies assume liability for any problems that result, including the possibility of a test missile going astray and hitting a populated area because of interference.

That's one scenario outlined today by John Stenbit, assistant secretary of defense for command, control, communications and intelligence, at a Spectrum Summit sponsored by the U.S. Department of Commerce.

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A Commerce Department agency, the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA), manages portions of the radio frequency band licensed to federal users, including the DOD. While deliberately extreme, Stenbit's example shows the kind of difficult choices commercial, federal and public safety users face as they vie for a piece of invisible, but increasingly valuable, spectrum real estate.

In a keynote speech during the two-day Spectrum Summit, Secretary of Commerce Donald Evans said government, commercial and industrial users and regulatory officials need to develop policies and practices that promote U.S. leadership in global communications technology. At the same time, he warned: "Today, more than ever, we are conscious of the importance of spectrum-related technology [for] our national defense and homeland security."

Evans and Federal Communications Commission Chairman Michael Powell both said they view the summit as a first step in resolving contentious spectrum issues. But, aside from agreeing that the FCC, NTIA and Congress have created a bureaucratic morass of regulations and oversight that impede progress, top-level participants from industry and government at a panel discussion agreed on little else.

For example, the cellular telephone industry, which currently has 130 million subscribers, needs 120MHz of additional spectrum to support both traditional voice operations and high-speed data services, according to John Stanton, chairman of Bellevue, Washington-based Voice Stream Wireless Corp. If the cellular industry doesn't get that spectrum space, he said, the U.S. economy could fall behind the rest of the world economy."

Voicestream and other cellular carriers have eyed portions of the spectrum used by the DOD for years, and have lobbied either to share it or acquire portions of the bandwidth in an outright auction.

Stenbit found both approaches wanting. For example, Stenbit said, the DOD doesn't always need its spectrum allocation for guided missiles -- meaning that portion could be shared. But when it is needed, the Pentagon sought assurance that companies would assume liability if interference caused a missile to go off course. (Stanton didn't offer to take on that responsibility.)

An auction of the DOD spectrum would require Defense officials to move complex systems to new frequencies, which in turn would require new wireless communications systems costing hundreds of millions of dollars.

Although the cellular industry has proposed an auction process that would include money to cover the DOD's expenses, Stenbit saw that approach as "an absolutely untenable risk." That's because there are no guarantees that the cell carriers' payments would ever make their way to the DOD to pay for the new communications systems, he said. The FCC last year delayed any such auction until at least 2004 (see story).

Commercial carriers aren't the only ones seeking more spectrum space.

Electric, gas and water utilities use their own slice of the spectrum band to monitor and control cross-country power networks and gas pipelines as well as statewide water systems. They also have specific frequencies used to dispatch repair crews -- and they need more spectrum, according to William Moroney, chairman of the Washington-based United Telecom Council, the utility industry telecommunications trade group.

Utilities haven't received new frequency allocations for 17 years, Moroney said.

Despite that utility industry shortage, Nextel Communications Inc. in Reston, Virginia, which provides cellular-like telecommunications service, wants the FCC to force utilities, railroads and other users such as FedEx Corp. to move off their spectrum in the 800MHz band to accommodate Nextel.

Moroney today called on federal policy makers to take into account the services delivered by various spectrum stakeholders. "We use our spectrum to keep people from freezing to death in the dark," he said.

Powell said he believes the FCC needs to make "greater use of market mechanisms" to allocate the spectrum, a point that Glen Nash, president of the Association of Public Safety Communications Officials International, said would reduce the spectrum battle to a pocket-book issue. "What is the value of a life?" that could be saved by public safety wireless systems, Nash said.

Michael Duffy, director of telecommunication services at the Department of Justice, agreed, saying that price tags can't be pinned on spectrum frequencies because they "support things society demands, such as public safety."