Experts Call for New Approach to Spectrum Coordination

WASHINGTON, July 25, 2023 – Spectrum sharing needs a new approach, agreed panelist at a Center for Strategic and International Studies event Tuesday.

More thought should be given to regulation and innovation surrounding receivers of radio signals rather than simply the transmitters, said Federal Communications Commission Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel. The FCC in coordination with the National Telecommunications and Information Administration is tasked with allocating spectrum bands for commercial use. Its authority to auction spectrum lapsed earlier this year for the first time since it was given to the agency.

The United States must identify everything that it can do differently to be more effective with spectrum sharing, Rosenworcel continued. She emphasized the need for the U.S. to maintain its global leadership in the tech space, particularly in preparation for the world radio conference in December. Many countries, including China, are trying to outpace the United States in this area, which would be detrimental to its global competitiveness, she said.

Dynamic spectrum sharing is still years away, said John Hunter, vice president of global security and technology policy at AT&T. “We need to change the vernacular of what sharing is,” he said, claiming that technology to enable different signals on the same frequency band of spectrum in a coexistence model is not available.

Hunter suggested focusing research on ways to partition the band, meaning that instead of sharing the band between government and private use on a dynamic system, the band is separated into different segments and reduces probability of harmful interference.

Other sharing techniques include a coordinated time-based approach that splits the time each user has access to operate on a specific frequency and a geographic approach that limits the usage of certain bands in areas that have high risk of harmful interference.

“Economic security is equally as important as national security,” said Hunter, advocating for Congress to allocate more spectrum for commercial use.

Hunter claimed that current spectrum research fails to consider the harmful interference that private companies face and creates a false narrative that spectrum sharing is plausible. The reality is any interference creates an unsustainable spectrum sharing solution, he said.

A large portion of this debate centers on the Department of Defense’s use of spectrum. While AT&T doesn’t want to see the DoD lose critical functionality, it is essential that Congress finds ways to balance their needs with consumer needs, said Christopher Boyer, vice president of global security and technology policy at AT&T.

The NTIA is scheduled to complete its national spectrum strategy, which represents a government-wide approach to maximizing the potential of the nation’s spectrum resources, by the end of the year. The FCC is considering ways to implement artificial intelligence for coordinating spectrum sharing.