NTIA Committee Wants Better Federal Coordination on Drones Spectrum

NTIA should designate a single coordinator within the agency to oversee spectrum policy on drones, said the Commerce Spectrum Management Advisory Committee’s Unmanned Aircraft Systems Subcommittee in a report, approved unanimously by the full CSMAC Thursday. Currently, oversight is spread across the federal government, the report said. CSMAC held its first meeting under President Joe Biden's administration. The FCC has considered but has yet to clear specific spectrum for drones.

“There are many disparate federal advisory committees with ongoing or recent UAS activity," but "no one committee" is providing a "national focal point for UAS spectrum,” said subcommittee co-Chair Carolyn Kahn, Mitre principal economics and business analyst. “It was difficult to find points of contact” for who's in charge, she said.

“Early applications are just the beginning of what the systems can achieve once they reach maturity and eventually operate nearly seamlessly with manned aviation in the same airspace with minimal restrictions,” the report said: “They can only reach this full capability with suitable spectrum infrastructure, such as spectrum access mechanisms and necessary regulations, enabled by appropriate regulations for spectrum access.”

NTIA should “play a leadership role in coordinating across federal government and providing direction and resources to facilitate UAS spectrum access,” the report said. It considered several models for drone spectrum, including terrestrial and satellite networks, unlicensed spectrum, dynamic spectrum sharing and band partitioning.

The FCC has looked at two bands for UAS spectrum (see 1912270039). An FCC report to Congress last year said the 5030-5091 MHz band is likely suitable for UAS operations, but the 960-1164 MHz band isn’t (see 2008280060).

The FAA and the aviation industry “have been reluctant to approve [control and non-payload communications] links in the 960-1164 MHz band at this time until concerns about interference to incumbent navigation and surveillance systems have been resolved,” the CSMAC report said: “The 5030-5091 MHz band has no significant restrictions foreseen and will be available for deployment on ground infrastructure once FCC service rules have been approved in coordination with” NTIA.

The broader 3 GHz band is NTIA’s main 5G focus, said Charles Cooper, associate administrator, Office of Spectrum Management, in a spectrum briefing. In 2020, 530 MHz became available in the band, he said. The government “responded to industry’s need for more spectrum access and to congressional mandates to provide it,” he said. “There will be tremendous commercial manufacturing efficiencies once 5G services are grouped together” in the 3 GHz block and interference is minimized.

Questions remain, including whether the lower 3 GHz band can be made available and what role dynamic sharing can play, Cooper said. NTIA is working on its third annual report on spectrum repurposing, he said. It's “closely monitoring” FCC work on spectrum for commercial rocket launches in the 2200-2290 MHz band (see 2103310050), he said: “We’ve got increasing federal missions and launches in this band as well, leading to increased need for coordination.” NTIA is also focused on modernizing how it manages federal spectrum, he said. Technology “takes on an increased importance in light of the Biden administration’s emphasis on decision-making based on empirical data, science and engineering.”

The committee's future was uncertain during the last administration, and it didn’t meet for more than a year (see 1908120048). Cooper reassured members that while CSMAC is being rechartered, it will play a role under Biden. “We are in a time of transition, but the importance of CSMAC remains constant,” he said.