FCC gives more details on spectrum plan

SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. – The U.S. Federal Communications Commission released more details today about its plans for spectrum reallocation as part of a workshop on the issue available online.

Industry is hungry for more spectrum, but competing sectors see no clear path to getting what they want without stepping on someone's existing allocations. In particular, hopes for new systems using reclaimed spectrum in the analog TV spectrum--the so-called "white spaces"—are diminishing.

The FCC released on its Web site a 30-page report describing the need for 300 MHz in additional spectrum by 2014, virtual real estate it valued at about $120 billion. The report projected 35-fold growth in mobile data over the next five years.

Earlier this year the FCC said as part of the U.S. national broadband plan it will free up 500 MHz of spectrum within ten years and 300 MHz of it within five years.

"We are facing an explosion of growth in mobile data," said Julius Genachowski, chairman of the FCC in a keynote address online. "The coming spectrum crunch is a vital issue for our economy, and we have to solve this for our mobile future," he said.

The FCC has already freed up 25 MHz in WCS bands and has proposed freeing up 90 MHz of satellite spectrum, Genachowski said.

Industry groups forecast they need as much as 800 to 1300 MHz--significantly more spectrum than the FCC outlined—to deal with the exploding use of mobile data over the next decade. However, they see no easy path even to getting the 300 MHz the FCC has promised.

"You can't see what's happened with smartphones and say we have enough spectrum," said Lynn Claudy, senior vice president for science and technology for the National Association of Broadcasters, speaking in a panel discussion at the annual Consumer Electronics Association meeting here.

The single biggest swath of the first 300 MHz—about 120 MHz—is expected to come from space reserved for analog TV channels.  But Claudy expressed grave reservations about how that much free spectrum can be found in broadcaster's channels.

Proceedings on the 120 MHz swath are expected to start before the end of the year. But action may need to wait until Congress takes up the issue of spectrum reform, likely in 2011.

"That’s when things will really start heating up," said Tom Dombrowsky, an engineering consultant at Wiley Rein LLP and an expert on telecommunications policy issue.

Congress is expected to offer spectrum holders the right to the proceeds from auctions of any spectrum they return to government as part of the reallocation plan. It may also force a national spectrum inventory, an effort that could take two years.

Claudy said broadcasters want both the inventory and the so-called incentive auctions. "If congress moves forward on incentive auctions then 120 MHz moves forward, but not without it," he said.

Genachowski said the FCC will consider at its November meeting a laundry list of new ideas. They include a plan for incentive auctions, broadcast channel sharing, experimental licensing for new technologies and opportunistic use of spectrum through technologies such as cognitive radio.

The FCC is also creating a new advisory group to explore business innovations in spectrum use. The group is chaired by Tom Wheeler, managing director of Core Capital Partners.

Genachowski called for broad input from the private sector on the issue. The workshop brought together executives from Cisco, Dell, Intel, Morgan Stanley, T-Mobile and Qualcomm.

FCC chair Julius Genachowski called for action on "spectrum crunch."