CSMAC Looking at How Enforcement Would Work in a World Where More Spectrum Is Shared

Enforcement is emerging as one of the biggest challenges facing industry as spectrum sharing becomes the rule rather than the exception, members of the Commerce Spectrum Management Advisory Committee said Friday at the group’s meeting at NTIA.

CSMAC member David Donovan, president of the New York State Broadcasters Association, said he is already facing enforcement issues on a daily basis. “I'm dealing with true bad guys,” he said. In 2013, the FCC issued some 60 notices of unlicensed operation in the New York City/Northern New Jersey area, Donovan said. “As far as we can tell it really hasn’t had any effect.”

On average, someone can make $400 a month by putting an illegal antenna on a roof in NYC, Donovan said. “There’s a market for it and there are people who are willing to put these on their roofs and so you have to track them down,” he said. “Even if you know where the transmitter is you have to track down who the real bad guy is. Sometimes it’s by cable. Now it’s all being fed by microwave, which is also unlicensed.”

"Ultimately we need very specific, identifiable recommendations,” said NTIA Associate Administrator Karl Nebbia. “Enforcement is a very big subject. It has been on the table for years and years.” Enforcement is critical “for government agencies that we're asking to jump off the cliff into this new world” of sharing, he said. NTIA has enforcement authority, but no enforcement bureau or staff dedicated to enforcement, Nebbia said.

A report by CSMAC’s Enforcement Working Group said among its preliminary conclusions that approaches to “identify, mitigate, and remedy instances of interference” should be put in place before sharing begins (http://1.usa.gov/Qo14Ob). “Necessary processes, protocols, terms and conditions may be formalized in any number of approaches including, but not limited to Memorandums of Understanding/Agreement between the participating parties or, rule based sharing protocols prior to the sharing of spectrum,” the report said. The report also called for creation of a flow chart, or possibly band-specific charts, to lay out “the myriad of procedures that are recommended to be followed by and among Federal Agencies and commercial entities regarding interference identification, mitigation, resolution approaches and enforcement activities.”

Congress should also examine amendments to the Communications Act shoring up government enforcement, the report said. Funding is also important, the report said. “NTIA and the FCC should explore regulatory regimes that fully fund appropriate enforcement activities, i.e., personnel, equipment, etc. as a necessary and integral part of spectrum management. Government should explore whether funding could be provided through equipment approval fees, regulatory fees, or through auction revenues."

"This is a whole new world we're operating in,” said former NTIA Administrator Janice Obuchowski of Freedom Technologies. “Yes, we can have generic principles. Yeah, it’s got to be in the equipment. Yeah, we're going to put more into enforcement. But each one of these cases is going to be a learning situation and they're not all going to be resolved in the same way.”

"What we're envisioning is that every time the commission opens up a band, or NTIA opens up a band to sharing, that there’s a conversation ... about how they envision enforcement working,” said Bryan Tramont of Wilkinson Barker. “Not only what tools they're going to use, but where are the resources, and that that is part and parcel of the regulatory process.” Without some way of dedicating more money to enforcement, enforcement won’t work, he said.

Bidirectional Sharing Debated

Bidirectional sharing, a hot topic at the FCC (CD March 27 p1), also is a hot topic at CSMAC. The group’s Bidirectional Sharing Working Group was unable to reach consensus on some questions it had been asked to address by NTIA, said Obuchowski, co-chairwoman of the group.

One key question is whether agencies should have to pay for the commercial spectrum they share, said a report by the group. “The answer is not a yes or no, but depends upon the nature of commercial spectrum, presence of incumbent operations, impact upon incumbent operations, and period of time (temporary or perhaps permanent),” the report said (http://1.usa.gov/1laMUda).

The group couldn’t agree on whether bidirectional sharing is an option only if a carrier or other licensee does not have an immediate, short-term or long-term need to operate on the spectrum, Obuchowski said. “I think service providers have indicated some willingness,” she said. “It always depends I suppose on the specific carriers, the circumstances and also the issue of optionality. I think optionality is the toughest issue of all. Very few people who have licensed spectrum are anxious to give up optionality and that’s kind of an understandable concern.”

The working group acknowledged they didn’t have enough information to answer the question on what band and location combinations can support large federal exercises or emergency use, Obuchowski said. “Based on discussions with NTIA, we are not responding to this question, as there need be too many uninformed assumptions at this point regarding both federal and non-federal operations to contribute,” the report said. Obuchowski said the committee discussed one specific band but “it was too hot to handle.”

CSMAC member Dennis Roberson of the Illinois Institute of Technology said he was disappointed the report didn’t offer insights on individual bands. The question “really is where the proverbial rubber meets the road,” he said. “There are lots of places to look and to give the pros and cons and I think going to that level would be really quite valuable.”

"If we're going to continue to talk about the inefficiency of government usage and the reality that they've got sporadic requirements for the most part, but can have ... intense operations that you don’t want to reserve the spectrum for, then you've got to come up with somewhere for [federal users] to go,” Nebbia said. “The answer can’t be ‘go up to 10 GHz or 20 GHz.’ They're looking for mobile operations the same way you are.”

The Department of Defense is the biggest proponent of bidirectional sharing but has acknowledged it isn’t ready to grasp how such sharing would work, Nebbia said. “It is a significant issue and one I hope we can more forward.”

In an update at the end of the meeting, Nebbia said the recent federal focus on spectrum has been unprecedented. “We've had three major rulemakings -- AWS-3, 3.5 GHz and 5 GHz -- all kind of in process at one time,” he said. It has been “certainly a huge challenge for NTIA and our staff and the federal agencies to stay up with each of those issues.”