WASHINGTON-The Clinton administration, bowing to industry pressure here and across the Atlantic, last week signaled for the first time a willingness to consider supporting global harmonization of third-generation mobile spectrum at next year’s World Radiocommunication Conference in Turkey.
“We’ve started a process to reopen discussions on the 3G spectrum industry says it needs,” said Donald Abelson, chief of the International Bureau at the Federal Communications Commission.
The decision to restart 3G spectrum negotiations was announced at a closed meeting between government and industry officials last Wednesday at the FCC.
The U.S. shift on 3G spectrum harmonization follows recent discussions here between disgruntled industry representatives-who until now have been frustrated with what they see as an isolationist U.S. stance on 3G spectrum-and Gail Schoettler, Clinton’s pick to head the U.S. delegation to WRC-2000.
“We have to get government users sitting down with industry users to forge a common position,” Schoettler told RCR Friday. “I’d like to go into Istanbul with a unified position.”
Even though she is meeting with industry lobbyists, Schoettler-immediate past lieutenant governor of Colorado-officially does not begin her ambassadorial duties until January.
In the meantime, Schoettler is working in the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy on public-safety wireless issues. Schoettler is attending the preparatory WRC-2000 meeting in Geneva for the next two weeks as a White House official. As such, the State Department’s Frank Williams is heading the U.S. delegation to that conference.
“It seems like the U.S. is being more positive now and is engaging in discussions with industry to look at different bands for 3G,” said Steve Sharkey, director of telecommunications regulation for Motorola Inc.
The next two months will be crucial as the United States tries to crystallize 3G spectrum and other policies it will pursue at WRC-2000, May 8-June 2 in Istanbul.
So far, fashioning a unified 3G spectrum position for WRC-2000 has proven elusive.
The United States would like to be close to having a 3G spectrum position for WRC-2000 when telecom regulators and industry executives meet with their counterparts from Latin America Dec. 6-10 in San Diego.
The U.S. 3G spectrum position is being crafted by the FCC, State Department and Commerce Department, with input from industry. To date, the process has been highly contentious because some frequencies industry wants earmarked for 3G (1755-1850 MHz, 2520-2670 MHz and 2700-2900) are occupied by government and commercial licensees.
Given that, industry and government must assess whether relocating incumbents is viable as a matter of public policy and, if so, whether it would be financially and technically feasible.
For that reason and others, the administration has resisted entreaties by industry to support additional global spectrum allocations for 3G. Europe and other regions support 3G spectrum harmonization, but some spectrum they want to auction for 3G already has been sold in the United States for personal communications services.
There is widespread consensus that 160 megahertz of addition spectrum is needed for 3G-a broadband Internet-friendly mobile phone technology-by 2010. That position got a big boost from an endorsement by the Transatlantic Business Dialogue forum in Berlin recently.
“I think this is a powerful transatlantic signal to governments,” said William Plummer, director of government and industry relations at Nokia Corp. “That’s what we need right now.”
Because Schoettler’s top aide on WRC-2000 comes from the Pentagon, some in industry are leery that industry’s 3G spectrum advocacy could be neutralized by the Department of Defense.
“I’m not functioning as a DOD person. I’m working as an aide to Ms. Schoettler,” said Rick Reaser. He added, “We’re [government] trying to get out of the `just say no’ mentality. But so must industry.”
The Pentagon and wireless industry fought a nasty battle in Congress during the summer over a bill designed to give priority to DOD spectrum. The provision, after intense industry lobbying, ultimately was watered down before Congress passed the legislation.
Support for 3G harmonization comes from a diverse coalition that includes AT&T Corp., Motorola Inc., Vodafone AirTouch plc, Nokia, BellSouth Corp., Bell Atlantic Corp., L.M. Ericsson, Omnipoint Communications Inc., Nortel Networks, Iridium, Ellipso, and the Personal Communications Industry Association.
For a variety of reasons, several big industry players, namely Lucent Technologies Inc., Qualcomm Inc. and the Cellular Telecommunications Industry Association, are not part of that group.
But that could change. Later this month, CTIA’s public policy council, a subset of its board of directors, plans to address 3G spectrum harmonization in light of the administration’s new overtures and the TABD communique.
“The U.S. government has come a long way in meeting industry concerns,” said Jennifer McCarthy, director of government affairs at Qualcomm.
Qualcomm fought a successful battle to get its Code Division Multiple Access technology 2000 accepted as global 3G standard along with Time Division Multiple Access technology and European-based wideband-CDMA.
The big question for Qualcomm, Lucent and others is whether countries erect licensing barriers to lock out cdma2000, which is backward compatible with existing CDMA wireless systems.
Joanne Wilson, global public affairs director of Lucent, said her company supports 3G harmonization and wants to ensure that cellular and PCS spectrum can evolve into 3G.
Major U.S. carriers and manufacturers have been frustrated by the administration’s reluctance thus far to embrace 3G spectrum harmonization, which many in industry claim will reduce equipment costs, foster exports and bolster global roaming. Some fear, however, spectrum harmonization would work to the advantage of major foreign phone suppliers, like Finland’s Nokia and Sweden’s Ericsson.
The FCC’s Abelson said he hopes to have a substantial amount of work done on 3G and other WRC-2000 positions by early next year.
