Wireless industry is watching closely final reports due Fri. from...

Wireless industry is watching closely final reports due Fri. from FCC and NTIA on potential spectrum that can be tapped for advanced wireless services, including 3G. Several sources have indicated they didn’t expect significant changes in FCC draft report issued last fall, which said segmenting and sharing in MMDS and ITFS bands to allow operations of advanced mobile services would pose technical challenges. One widely expected change is that final NTIA report will be much more inclusive than draft on interference concerns raised by Defense Dept. NTIA interim report last year had outlined potential spectrum sharing and segmentation opportunities in some cases between new wireless users and govt. incumbents. Serious challenge draft cited was sharing with uplink satellite control systems. But Pentagon sent letter to Commerce Secy. Donald Evans last month raising concerns that loss of access to spectrum beyond that relinquished by military in Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1993 and 1997 Balanced Budget Act “would jeopardize the DoD’s ability to execute its mission.” DoD is submitting report to NTIA for inclusion in final report. Letter to Evans says DoD report concludes that sharing 1755-1850 MHz isn’t possible “due to predictable, mutual interference over large geographic areas and major metropolitan centers.” Mitigating expected interference “would require unacceptable restrictions on military operations, training and readiness,” former Deputy Defense Secy. Rudy De Leon said. He told Evans that DoD report concluded that “regardless of financial investment,” Pentagon couldn’t vacate or segment band until at least 2010 for nonspace systems and at least 2017 for space systems. Those dates could stretch out to 2030 for some satellites, he wrote. DoD said that such conclusions were based on principle that DoD couldn’t accept any degradation of its mission capability as result of spectrum reallocation. “The 1755-1850 MHz band is indispensable to the defense of the United States and its allies,” DoD wrote. “Our nation’s armed forces would be at a substantial strategic and tactical disadvantage in combat and the execution of military operations could be jeopardized if the Department lost its use of the band.” “I think that they are viewing the DoD report as the basis of their report and they are going to follow it,” said one industry source of upcoming NTIA report. Industry, on other hand, has outlined scenarios in which segmentation and sharing are possible in band at least in short-term to mitigate interference issues. With both FCC and NTIA reports expected to focus on challenges to sharing in respective bands, attention in industry is turning to who in Bush administration will take most active role as FCC and NTIA negotiate, sources said. “As a matter of practical negotiation, FCC doesn’t hold many strong cards,” said Precursor Group analyst Rudy Baca. “FCC is asking NTIA/the government for some of their spectrum ‘please.’ The response is usually, ‘No, it’s ours and we need all of it.'” As result, it becomes more difficult to carry out simple negotiations between FCC and NTIA, when former lacks full complement of commissioners and latter doesn’t yet have permanent director, Baca said. “It is going to take someone higher up in the Administration -- maybe Secy. of Commerce Don Evans or somebody in the White House.” MG