The House of Representatives on Tuesday passed the Spectrum Coordination Act, which would require the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) and the FCC to update their memorandum of understanding (MOU) on spectrum coordination.
The NTIA and FCC already have updated their spectrum coordination efforts and established a meeting schedule, so it seems a matter of making it all official and getting it on the books, so to speak. Their old MOU dates back to January 2003.
Just last week, FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel and Assistant Secretary of Commerce Alan Davidson announced the launch of a joint task force to nail down the details of the new MoU between the two agencies.
Back in February, the FCC and NTIA agreed to an initiative to improve their coordination on spectrum management. Dubbed the Spectrum Coordination Initiative, the plan involves actions by both agencies to strengthen the processes for decision making and information sharing and to work cooperatively to resolve spectrum policy issues.
Information sharing between the agencies came up during the controversy over the C-band, where the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and aviation industry officials basically called out the FCC for making the “wrong” decision about the safety of 5G in the portion of the C-band that was auctioned to wireless carriers.
In a nutshell: The FCC had deemed that 5G services in the band were safe, auctioned off spectrum for over $81 billion and proceeded to award those C-band licenses to Verizon, AT&T and others. However, at the 11th or so hour, U.S. transportation officials stepped in with concerns about imminent chaos due to the C-band; the licensed C-band carriers agreed to delays in their deployments, as well as scaling back activations near certain airports.
That was only the (very big) tip of the iceberg, however. Several high-profile spectrum arguments ensued over the past few years where the FCC and other government entities were at odds, including over the L-band licenses, where GPS companies felt they were being subjected to interference; and the 5.9 GHz band, which again highlighted conflicts between the Department of Transportation (DoT) and FCC.
In more recent times, the FCC and NTIA pointed out that they have a long history of working together to ensure that spectrum policy decisions foster economic growth, ensure national and homeland security and maintain U.S. global leadership.
The GPS Innovation Alliance (GPSIA), for one, is all for the House of Representatives' bipartisan vote on passage of the Spectrum Coordination Act.
“This timely action is a step toward codifying important aspects of the FCC and NTIA’s recently announced Spectrum Coordination Initiative, and we strongly agree that improving the spectrum coordination process through a whole-of-government approach is necessary to strengthen our spectrum policy decision making,” said GPSIA Acting Executive Director Alex Damato in a statement.
He added that the GPSIA looks forward to continued work with Congress, the FCC and NTIA on improving the government’s spectrum policy collaboration, including “through accepted interference protection criteria that are necessary to protect vital satellite-based services like GPS.”
The bill now must be considered by the Senate.