Your blogger’s April column has now been published in IEEE Wireless Communications. With the cooperation of the Editor-in-Chief, Prof. Michael Chang, University of Florida, an unusually fast turn around permitted it to deal with the National Broadband Plan.

On the same topic is a presentation you blogger gave on NBP in Japan on Monday to the Association of Radio Industries and Businesses (ARIB), an organization roughly comparable to TIA.

This year two new tools have appeared to try to illuminate spectrum data what was previously available but hard to use. One is from a private party and the other is from FCC as a byproduct of the National Broadband Report.

The private effort is Unwanted Emissions, a website developed by a federal government spectrum manager who is active in IRAC matters. However, this is a personal effort that was done with the approval of his agency as it only contains public information. (“Unwanted emissions” is an inside IRAC joke for referring to FCC-authorized systems.)

The UE site has allocation table information and includes both ITU and domestic footnotes (US, G, and NG ) for the spectrum from to 9 kHz to 1000 GHz. There is even a useful guide to allocation information.

“There’s an app for that” - a version of UE called “Allocations” exists as an iPhone/iPod touch App for $6.99.

Amusingly it has this one scathing review on the Apple app site from a ham, “If there was a lower rating than 1 star. i would want as low as I could. I been a ham radio op. for 40+ years this is the most useless app I’ve seen.” Well, for most hams it is probably pretty useless, but I suspect readers of this blog will have a different viewpoint.

Both UE and Allocations allow easy access to all footnotes - not so convenient in paper versions.

From FCC NBP team we get Spectrum Dashboard which has both allocation and licensing information - at least for some bands. It also gives your lines to FCC rule parts - unfortunately it gives you the GPO site for the appropriate part of the FCC Rules, e.g. Part 90. Where that band is in the Part 90 rules in up to you to find - it can be tough in many cases. It also only deals with 225-3700 MHz while UE covers the entire allocation table to 1000 GHz. Now for most commercial systems, 225-3700 is of primary interest and this is still the beta version, so let’s not be too harsh.

You can search for a spectrum block and get something that looks like the NTIA spectrum chart for that block that tell you what services are allocated. But the information is presented in allocation jargon such as “This band is used for the Mobile Satellite Service. This is allocated for both Federal and Non-Federal use” with no indication of what the use is called in normal jargon of if the band is actually in practical use. However, you can search more in a window alongside the NTIA-like chart and find what bands in a specific service are in the frequency range of interest and then you get a plain language description of what is happening such as:



The “View Enhanced Information” button then gets you a list of licenses in that band! This was available before in ULS, but this method is much easier. You can even get maps showing the amount of spectrum available in various counties.

A downside of the Dashboard is the focus on present allocations and the lack of any information on transitions in progress and pending actions. For example a search on 2120-2180 MHz gives the following information:
Want to buy a 2130-2150 Fixed license cheap? There is no hint at all about the AWS-3 band (2155-2175/80 MHz). No sign that the days of Fixed in this band are limited. No mention of the pending NPRM in Docket 07-195, let alone the NBP plans for this band.

In Spectrum Policy Task Force days we were trying to develop a web page with information about ongoing proceedings and WRC actions included with current allocations. Unfortunately, the resources were not available at that time. Hopefully the next version of the Dashboard will consider making this information available also.

Both websites are useful tools for the spectrum community and both need user feedback to help them evolve in the directions that users need. Feel free to post to this blog your comments to guide them and congratulations to the developers of both!

Tags: alllocation table, spectrum management

With a little more time to review the National Broadband Plan, we can start commenting on its spectrum provisions.

First, at the risk of saying the obvious, we now have a rather detailed statement of strategy for spectrum - something the FCC has not had for a long time. I have previously written how other countries such as Japan and UK had such strategies and how the public availability of such information improves transparency and stimulates R&D. So whether the plan is perfect, good, or even bad, just knowing about current thinking is a great improvement over the past.

On the eve of the report’s release, the New York Times commented how the previous commission was obsessed with broadcast indecency while the current one is focusing on broadband issues. There is some truth to this. But this also points out a fundamental management problem in the FCC structure: the FCC focuses “from crisis to crisis” and the many parts of the FCC can not function in parallel while the 8th Floor is distracted by one megaproblem. Thus when the crisis of the day was indecency then spectrum policy was given little attention and now when the crisis is broadband - admittedly a broad topic - other issues get scant attention. I think FCC should look at how the UK’s Ofcom is organized and observe how this problem is not as severe in their arrangement where the board at the top acts like a corporate board overseeing top managers, not like a group of micromanagers afraid to delegate authority and who fundamentally limit overall productivity of the agency.

To me, the most exciting part of the plan was the public safety issue:

Create a Nationwide Interoperable Public Safety Wireless Broadband Communications Network.

Broadband technologies will give first responders new tools to save American lives. The nation needs a nationwide public safety broadband wireless network that allows first responders nationwide to communicate with one another at all times and without delay. A three-pronged approach will allow the speedy deployment, operation, and continued evolution of such a network. The three prongs are:

1. An administrative system to ensure that public safety users of broadband spectrum have the capacity and service they require for their network; they also should be able to leverage commercial technologies to take advantage of the vast number of applications and devices that are being developed for commercial wireless broadband networks.
2. An emergency response interoperability center to ensure that first responders nationwide can communicate with one another via public safety wireless broadband communications.
3. A grant program to help fund the construction, operation and evolution of the public safety broadband network to ensure resiliency and ubiquitous coverage.

Previously FCC has tried to solve the public safety Tower of Babel problem by throwing more spectrum at the problem. Repeatedly this has resulted in just more layers to the tower and new bands with interoperability problems. However, manufacturers may have been pleased with the new bands. He who pays the bills can select the technology and if the feds pay the bill they can make the public safety telecom systems as compatible as the Interstate Highway System is.

Another great recommendation is

RECOMMENDATION 5.6:

Congress should consider granting authority to the FCC to impose spectrum fees on license holders and to NTIA to impose spectrum fees on users of government spectrum.

One interesting point is that this addresses Federal Government spectrum at all! In the draft Spectrum Policy Task Force report there was one point that just suggested NTIA might consider one new policy and the NTIA and IRAC staff were so incensed that they got the language deleted from the report. Clearly NTIA and FCC are worked together better now and thinking about the public interest, not just the near term convenience of the IRAC membership. There is even this example from the UK:

The UK has been in a leader in both creating a nationwide interoperable public safety systems and in creating incentives for government spectrum users to trade off efficient technology for less spectrum use.