WASHINGTON—Cellular Telecommunications & Internet Association President Thomas Wheeler today urged Commerce Secretary Donald Evans to free up spectrum held by the Pentagon and other federal agencies for third-generation wireless systems.
“Failure to move expeditiously to deliver 120 megahertz of internationally harmonized wireless spectrum beginning in 2005 will have serious economic, budgetary and homeland security implications,” said Wheeler in a letter to Evans.
Wheeler’s letter comes as the Bush administration prepares for a national spectrum summit on Thursday and Friday. The National Telecommunications and Information Administration, the administration’s telecom policy arm and summit host, is studying the 3G spectrum and plans to announce the results in late spring.
But already the Department of Defense, in congressional testimony and press statements, has signaled that surrendering any more frequencies to the private sector will be very difficult because of increased demand for radio channels for highly mobile troops in new, network-centric warfare.
