US Spectrum Management Advisory Committee

From WCA Member Bulletin- December 14, 2006 U.S. Senate Confirms President’s Principal Spectrum Advisor The U.S. Senate has confirmed John M. R. Kneuer of New Jersey to be Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Communications and Information. Kneuer, a keynote speaker at WCA 2006, heads the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA), and serves as President Bush’s principal adviser on telecommunications and information policy issues. Details. U.S. Spectrum Management Advisory Committee Sets Goals, Names Chair The recently-formed U.S. Commerce Department’s Spectrum Management Advisory Committee agreed at its first meeting this week to complete its first tasks by the end of the first quarter of 2007, TR Daily reported. Those include analyzing a new spectrum “test bed” and recommending ways to improve frequency sharing among government agencies and increase agency use of commercial networks, the publication said. NTIA Administrator Kneuer asked the panel to form two subcommittees to focus on “technical efficiencies” and “operational efficiencies.” “The first task for the technical subcommittee will be analyzing the spectrum test bed, which -- like the advisory panel -- was a recommendation of the Bush administration’s spectrum-management initiative,” the publication wrote. “The initial task for the operational subcommittee will be analyzing efforts to improve spectrum sharing among government agencies, including federal and local entities, Kneuer said. He said also that after analyzing technical and operational spectrum efficiencies during the first phase of its work, the advisory committee should focus on ways to create incentives to achieve them. The advisory committee has a two-year charter, and can be renewed. Kneuer also appointed as committee chair Dale Hatfield – a consultant and adjunct professor in the University of Colorado’s Interdisciplinary Telecommunications Program and former chief of the FCC’s Office of Engineering and Technology. NTIA Studies Plan That Would Allow Government Agencies To Lease Unused Spectrum U.S. government agencies soon may be able to lease spectrum in the secondary market to commercial users under a plan NTIA is considering in response to a Presidential initiative on federal spectrum use, reported Communications Daily, quoting NTIA’s Eric Stark. “Can we implement more market-based structures, can we give federal agencies more rights to their spectrum?” he asked. “That’s one of the things we are considering – why not markets for federal spectrum and the management of federal spectrum?”