Killing him softly

Shared Spectrum Co. didn’t need the luck of the Irish in the first public demonstration of its cognitive radio technology at the IEEE Dynamic Spectrum Access Networks Conference in Dublin last month. It was the real deal, a potential breakthrough technology for military and commercial applications developed by SSC founder Dr. Mark McHenry and his team only miles away from Federal Communications Commission headquarters.
Is the FCC doing enough to encourage spectrum innovations like the XG radio system developed by SSC for the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency?
Some critics lament that FCC Chairman Kevin Martin has drastically departed from the ambitious spectrum reform agenda pursued by his predecessor at a time when the supply of usable airwaves is dwindling. The FCC of Michael Powell questioned the conventional wisdom on spectrum congestion, asking to what extent the airwaves are actually occupied at any one time and whether smart, powerful software could be engineered into radio devices to nimbly exploit spectrum vacancies through a seamless dynamic process. Of course, Powell & Co. made the mobile-phone industry-whose members have invested billions of dollars on spectrum licenses and billions more on network construction-a bit nervous. Martin doesn’t scare industry the way Powell did on the spectrum reform front. Universal service reform is a different story.
So it was that the Martin FCC recently terminated interference temperature and receiver standards proceedings begun under Powell.
Commissioner Michael Copps, a Democrat on the GOP-led FCC, reiterated his view that “the interference temperature method of managing interference holds promise in improving the commission’s ability to carry out its statutory duty to encourage more efficient uses of the radio spectrum.” Both Copps and fellow Democratic Commissioner Jonathan Adelstein expressed misgivings about shelving the receiver standards initiative, though it appears there is nothing to prevent either matter from being revived at a later date.
Meantime, the FCC’s Technological Advisory Committee has been relatively dormant under Martin.
Martin fired contractor Dale Hatfield, preventing the well-regarded former telecom policymaker from completing a follow-up E-911 study to the one he conducted during Powell’s tenure. All told, skeptics now have more ammunition for the theory that it may be more about Powell than policy for Martin when it comes to spectrum policy.