WASHINGTON-The Federal Communications Commission will hold a spectrum management en banc hearing tomorrow to hear the pros and cons of spectrum policies from users and policy makers.
FCC Commissioner Susan Ness proposed the hearing last year as a way to address some of the concerns arising from the C-block personal communications services auction, the possible auctioning of private wireless spectrum and the use of spectrum by broadcasters for digital television. Ness said a similar hearing held in the early 1990s was helpful.
Federal policy makers including Thomas Sugrue, chief of the FCC’s Wireless Telecommunications Bureau, are set to speak. Sugrue will be joined by Dale Hatfield, chief of the FCC’s Office of Engineering and Technology; Bruce Franca, OET deputy chief; Tom Tycz, chief of the satellite and radiocommunications division of the FCC’s International Bureau; Robert Pepper, chief of the FCC’s Office of Plans and Policy; and William T. Hatch, acting associate administrator for the office of spectrum management at the National Telecommunications and Information Administration.
Users of the public radio-frequency spectrum, including Mark Crosby, president of the Industrial Telecommunications Association; Mike Kennedy, corporate vice president and director of Motorola Inc.; and John Stanton, chief executive of Western Wireless Corp.; are expected to testify on a number of issues, including:
The advantages and disadvantages of providing spectrum for new services using:
a) Increased sharing;
b) Technical improvements such as reducing channel bandwidths;
c) Mandatory relocation of existing users by a certain date; and
d) Reallocation of spectrum from one service to another service using an approach where new entrants are responsible for relocating existing users.
Since the distinctions between fixed and mobile wireless are becoming blurred, should the FCC promote more flexible use of the spectrum or should it adopt more detailed technical and operations regulations for the spectrum use?
How can the FCC properly take into account the needs of those users whose use may involve substantial non-economic factors-such as public safety or ham radio operators-when making allocation decisions, as well as international considerations in developing policy and licensing decisions?
A third panel will examine new approaches to managing spectrum in the future. One of the invited panelists is Thomas W. Hazlett, a former FCC chief economist and known auction-hawk.
