WASHINGTON-The Clinton administration, still struggling to craft a third-generation mobile phone spectrum position for this spring’s World Radiocommunication Conference in Turkey, has organized a 15-member industry-government committee and directed it to come up with recommendations by the middle of next month.
The decision to set up the committee, made by WRC-2000 Ambassador Gail Schoettler at a State Department meeting recently, appears to reflect the frustration-and possibly even desperation-of a situation in which the administration and U.S. wireless industry find themselves in less than six months before WRC-2000 opens in Istanbul.
For months, many in the wireless industry have been pressing a reluctant administration to push for global 3G spectrum harmonization at WRC-2000. The United States, for the most part, has been opposed to 3G spectrum harmonization for both philosophical and practical reasons. Last November, the FCC decided to reopen negotiations.
The United States historically has not been keen on service-specific global spectrum allocations, figuring such allocations give telecom policy-makers little flexibility and may turn out to be competitively harmful to American firms. The administration also realizes there are domestic spectrum conflicts inherent in the 3G spectrum allocation options.
U.S. wireless firms argue global commerce and transborder mergers change everything; that is, carriers and manufacturers need common blocks of spectrum around the world to compete in the emerging and potentially multibillion-dollar broadband 3G market.
3G spectrum harmonization, according to the industry, will reduce equipment costs through economies of scale and will foster global roaming.
As such, the wireless industry has targeted the 1755 MHz-1850 MHz, 2520 MHz-2690 MHz and 2700 MHz-2900 MHz bands as possible candidates for 3G global spectrum. The problem is, those bands are partially occupied by American government and nongovernment users. Those licensees are not happy about getting booted of their spectrum, even with a promise of possible relocation and compensation for doing so.
The feasibility of the three frequency bands for 3G are being studied. Generally speaking, the industry works with the Federal Communications Commission, the National Telecommunications and Information Administration and the State Department to fashion WRC policy.
Sources said Schoettler, who could not be reached for comment, wants 3G spectrum recommendations to be in place before a U.S. team travels to Caracas, Venezuela, in early March to discuss WRC strategy with Central American and South American nations.
The United States wants to forge a unified position that can be taken into WRC-2000. That could be difficult to achieve, according to sources, because it would require the United States to undo 3G spectrum concessions it extracted from some Central American and South American countries not long ago.
