AWS-3 Auction Over, but 'Heavy Lifting' Just Beginning, NTIA Official Says

The AWS-3 auction is over but “the heavy lifting” is just getting started as industry and the government work to clear the spectrum bought in the auction, said Paige Atkins, NTIA associate administrator for spectrum management, at the Commerce Spectrum Management Advisory Committee meeting (see 1505120040) Tuesday. Relocation could take up to 10 years, she said: “We expect significant sharing to occur in the interim and a lot of coordination and collaboration to occur during that time.” Atkins said the Competitive Carriers Association and CTIA will host an AWS-3 government and information exchange June 4, which will be open to winning bidders in the auction. “This is to begin the informal dialogue around expectations, processes and tools that will facilitate the transition,” she said, noting it will be similar to coordination after the 2008 AWS-1 auction. NTIA and the Institute of Telecommunications Sciences (ITS) are expanding their spectrum monitoring pilot in the 3.5 GHz band, spectrum set aside for shared use, Atkins said. They're working with federal agencies to host four additional sensors and potentially expand coverage beyond 3.5 GHz, she said. ITS, in collaboration with the National Institute of Standards and Technology, is also developing a measured spectrum occupancy database, she said. “That’s intended to make the sensor data available on a near real-time basis to support policy planning, engineering, and eventually, potentially, dynamic sharing.” Spectrum for international mobile telecom (IMT) is the top priority of the U.S. at the World Radiocommunications Conference later this year, Atkins said. “Go figure,” she said. “The challenge for mobile broadband services is the same internationally as nationally,” she said: “The most suitable bands are already being used by other services for things like broadcasting” and satellite links. The U.S. focus is on sharing, she said. The U.S. supports sharing in the 3.5 GHz band, the 600 MHz spectrum being offered in the TV incentive auction and the L band, at 1424-1518 MHz, which the U.S. supports but doesn't plan to implement here, she said. The second priority is spectrum for beyond-line-of sight command and control link for unmanned aircraft systems. A likely topic of the WRC in 2019 is a look at the use of bands above 6 GHz, she said.