Obama Administration Eyes 'All-of-the-Above' Spectrum Approach

The Obama administration plans an “all-of-the-above” approach on spectrum, wrote White House Council of Economic Advisers Chairman Jason Furman and U.S. Chief Technology Officer Megan Smith, in a joint Wall Street Journalop-ed. The AWS-3 auction “is an important step toward President [Barack] Obama ’s goal of freeing up 500 megahertz of spectrum by 2020, nearly doubling the amount available for mobile broadband use,” they said. It’s crucial to make more spectrum available and that government agencies continue to find ways to free up more spectrum, they said. “Ultimately, reaching the president’s 500 MHz goal will require changing the traditional spectrum model of exclusive, licensed use. Many organizations have begun to explore new technologies for sharing spectrum more efficiently and new economic models for allocating this scarce resource.”