Strickling Dashes Hope 1755 MHz Band Could Be Reallocated

HOT SPRINGS, Va. -- The National Broadband Plan’s proposal that 500 MHz of additional spectrum be reallocated for wireless broadband over the next five years is only a recommendation, NTIA Administrator Larry Strickling said at the FCBA annual meeting Saturday. The administration may reach another conclusion. Strickling said: “The administration continues to evaluate what is doable in this area and how to organize itself, conduct an evaluation. I don’t think there’s any question but that the administration understands the importance of looking for additional spectrum. In my own agency we're already starting to think about how we would do that on the federal side."

The administration may adopt a separate position on spectrum goals, Strickling told us. “I think the vehicle is still to be determined,” he said. “It could come from the president so there are any number of ways to adopt that as a policy.” As the president’s communications advisor he likely will play a role in development of that policy, but the timing is unclear, he said. “I think we could still see the administration setting a goal that would require FCC involvement, but obviously the president can’t order the FCC to do anything, he can urge its cooperation.”

To hit the 500 MHz goal will require a combination of clearing some bands, while requiring sharing of others, Strickling said. “What strikes me … was how small the percentage of the total spectrum is that is allocated exclusively to federal use.” Many bands are already shared by government and commercial users, he said: “That immediately makes it hard to talk about the traditional ‘let’s clear it and auction it’ type thing.” Geographic sharing and use of sensing technologies both will have to be part of the mix, he said.

The FCC plan specifically calls for an evaluation of the 1755-1780 MHz band and the potential that it could be paired with already available but yet-to-be-auctioned AWS-3 spectrum. “It’s a very tough band and people should understand that,” Strickling said. The band is used for many critical government operations, he said. “The idea that that is something that could be auctioned quickly is not one that I think could come to fruition, but that doesn’t mean that there isn’t something else out there.”

Strickling said an interagency committee he chairs, along with Energy Department General Counsel Scott Harris, has held its first meeting to evaluate the National Broadband Plan on behalf of the administration. “The first homework assignment that everybody was given was basically go through the plan and identify any of the recommendations … that affected your agency and to give us an indication as to whether this was something that your agency was already working on,” Strickling said. “A lot of the things in the plan capture activities that were already under way. … That information is coming in right now.” The committee will look at areas where additional interagency cooperation is needed, Strickling said. “I think [the committee] does reflect the seriousness with which the administration takes the plan, the importance of the plan to the administration’s goals for innovation, economic growth, job creation.”

Strickling said Capitol Hill has become increasingly partisan and some members don’t want to hear anything positive about the broadband stimulus program administered by NTIA. “People are dug in on a lot of these issues and it’s very hard to convince people about what you're trying to do and why it’s a good thing to do and why you think you have the right arguments,” he said. Strickling noted that he has appeared before Congress during seven hearings on the program. “We have a few congressmen who are just absolutely dug in about the program, not because they necessarily know that there’s an issue with the program, but because it’s a another political agenda that they may have,” he said.

The Broadband Technology Opportunities Program has been a success so far, Strickling said. He conceded the agency faces tough time frames evaluating second round grant applications by the Sept. 30 deadline. “We're going to be taking all the lessons learned from round one in terms of what we have to look at in these projects and then just doing it on a much higher scale and at a much faster speed,” he said. Evaluators spend 200 hours on each proposal, trying to understand the project, he said. “We evaluate the management team, we look at the budgets, we look at the reasonableness of the cost estimates,” he said. “I am pleased that we have a lot of high quality applications, apparently, in the pool.” He said he’s “very pleased” with the kind of projects financed during the first funding round.

Morale was low at NTIA when he arrived, Strickling said. He recalled a meeting with staff when he became administrator last year. “I asked everybody, I said, ‘How many of you people when you wake up in the morning can’t wait to come into the office and do your job?'” Strickling said. “Two people raised their hand. Then I asked ‘how many of you people ever felt that way about your job’ and they all raised their hand.” His challenge as administrator was “how do we get to where people can feel really good about what they're doing and feel like they're making a contribution and feel that the organization respects and supports them,” he said.

Strickling, former chief of the FCC Common Carrier Bureau, said some at the commission view the commission as bureaucratic. “It is nothing compared to working for the executive branch of government,” he said. “You have just so many more people and agencies and institutions if you have to coordinate with in the executive branch. … The FCC being an independent regulatory agency has a lot more leeway to follow its own lead on things.” Whenever you come up with what you view as a “smart, rational, efficient way” to address a problem, “almost assuredly you can’t do it that way,” he joked.