MATSUI AND GUTHRIE URGE BIDEN ADMINISTRATION TO REVIEW FEDERAL RECEIVER TECHNOLOGY
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, Congresswoman Doris Matsui (CA-06) and Congressman Brett Guthrie (KY-02), co-chairs of the Congressional Spectrum Caucus, sent a letter to National Telecommunications and Information Administration Assistant Secretary Alan Davidson, Office of Science and Technology Policy Director Dr. Arati Prabhakar, and General Services Administration Administrator Robin Carnahan, urging them to conduct a comprehensive review of federal receiver technology and procurement policy.
“Demand for spectrum is increasing at an unprecedented pace. For the United States to remain the leader in wireless communications technology, more intensive use of spectrum will be necessary,” the lawmakers wrote. “Federal systems will play a significant role in helping or hindering this goal and we urge you to initiate a comprehensive assessment of federal receiver technology and policies to support a more dynamic spectrum environment.”
Inefficient receivers can prevent otherwise innovative and productive spectrum usage, and it is clear that outdated technology threatens the future of our spectrum pipeline. The FCC has recently issued a Notice of Inquiry (NOI) on this front, but it is crucial that a similar effort across the whole of the federal government be initiated quickly. The lawmakers are urging the Administration to jumpstart this process and ensure an innovative spectrum ecosystem well into the future.
The letter has the support of industry organizations including: Information Technology and Innovation Foundation, Public Knowledge, Competitive Carriers Association, Open Technology Institute at New America, CTIA, TechFreedom, AT&T, T-Mobile, and Verizon.
"The necessity of getting more out of our nation's airwaves has become impossible to ignore, and the quality of wireless receivers must not be a bottleneck to more productive spectrum use,” said Joe Kane, Director of Broadband and Spectrum Policy, Information Technology and Innovation Foundation. “As the FCC evaluates how to improve receiver performance, Congresswoman Matsui and Congressman Guthrie’s letter makes clear that federal agencies should do the same. Higher quality receivers make critical missions more reliable and secure. They also make federal spectrum users better stewards of valuable bandwidth. The proposals in Congresswoman Matsui and Congressman Guthrie’s letter would set the stage for a more resilient and productive wireless ecosystem, and they are a laudable example of the Congressional leadership that will be necessary to make it a reality."
“Since the steadily growing demand for spectrum can only be met by sharing frequency bands and locating new services closer to current users, it is increasingly imperative that the FCC has a baseline understanding of how receivers in the band under consideration and in adjacent bands perform,” said Greg Guice, Director of Government Affairs, Public Knowledge and Michael Calabrese, Director, Wireless Future Project, Open Technology Institute at New America. “Our groups strongly agree with Reps. Matsui and Guthrie that the Administration should begin by cataloguing receiver performance by federal users, which will be foundational to informing that understanding and to fostering an environment that promotes the goals for spectrum usage as Congress envisioned when it provided the FCC authority to manage commercial spectrum through a mix of access regimes.”
“I thank Congresswoman Matsui and Congressman Guthrie for their letter and their focus on the need to maximize the use of valuable spectrum resources,” said Steven K. Berry, President and CEO, Competitive Carriers Association. “It is critically important that receiver standards promote efficient spectrum use so that industry, the economy, and most importantly consumers, can take advantage of all the benefits and opportunities that spectrum provides. This is more important than ever, as consumer usage increases and new innovations continue to develop. Understanding receiver performance is an important first step, and CCA thanks Congresswoman Matsui and Congressman Guthrie for their attention to this issue.”
A copy of the letter can be found below and HERE.
Dear Assistant Secretary Davidson, Director Prabhakar, and Administrator Carnahan:
Demand for spectrum is increasing at an unprecedented pace. For the United States to remain the leader in wireless communications technology, more intensive use of spectrum will be necessary. Federal systems will play a significant role in helping or hindering this goal and we urge you to initiate a comprehensive assessment of federal receiver technology and policies to support a more dynamic spectrum environment.
Spectrum use patterns are rapidly evolving and it is imperative that government systems keep pace to support this innovation. New sharing techniques and more flexible, market-oriented approaches to licensing are creating new opportunities to serve consumers and meet business needs. Despite these advances, there have been several examples of receivers preventing or slowing more productive uses of spectrum. While federal spectrum management has traditionally scrutinized transmitters, power levels, in-band and out of-band emission limits, among other issues, it is clear receiver performance is also a critical component of effective spectrum environments. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) recently initiated a Notice of Inquiry (NOI) to examine “role of receiver performance in our spectrum management responsibilities, with the goal of facilitating new opportunities for use of our nation’s spectrum resources.” To better understand how federal systems’ receiver performance impacts this goal, we believe a similar effort must be undertaken across the federal government.
Given the increased demand on national spectrum resources, some new spectrum deployments will involve Federal and non-Federal governance. In these cases, legacy government systems with poor receiver performance could unnecessarily prevent underutilized spectrum from being made available for more efficient use. Additionally, federal procurement and deployment of ineffective receiver technology now could foreclose spectrum innovation in the future. In both scenarios, additional federal scrutiny of receiver technology and procurement policies will help keep our spectrum pipeline healthy.
The FCC’s NOI acknowledges that “incorporation of receiver performance specifications could serve to promote more efficient utilization of the spectrum and create opportunities for new and additional use of radio communications by the American public.” This same principle holds for federal systems. While overly prescriptive or rigid specifications will likely be counterproductive, understanding how federal agencies measure, analyze, and specify receiver performance across federal systems is an important first step. In its filing to the FCC’s NOI, the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) notes that its “Institute for Telecommunication Sciences (ITS) has developed a suite of measurement techniques, capabilities, and institutional knowledge to characterize receiver performance of many types of systems.” This expertise should be employed across the federal footprint consistent with NTIA’s role.
As more federal agencies assess their current and expected future spectrum usage, it is imperative that agencies must also look at ways to improve receiver performance. NTIA acknowledges in its filing that “various other federal agencies in some cases have their own receiver-focused performance requirements and activities for radio systems that are critical to federal missions.” These requirements are foundational to the success of federal missions, and their development and periodic update would benefit from the engineering expertise of ITS.
To help address these important issues, we urge you to initiate a review of federal receiver technology and policies across the federal government. We appreciate your attention to this matter and look forward to working with you to maintain American leadership in wireless communications technology.
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