CTIA's Baker calls for spectrum 'report card' to assess how government agencies use airwaves

CTIA President Meredith Attwell Baker wants to create a spectrum "report card" that would assess how efficiently government agencies are using their spectrum.

That's one piece of a broader agenda she has for getting more airwaves for mobile broadband use beyond this fall's coming auction of AWS-3 spectrum and the 2015 incentive auction of 600 MHz broadcast TV spectrum.

Baker, who became the head of the wireless industry's trade association and lobbying arm in early June, said a report card would "keep people's feet to the fire to make sure we're utilizing the spectrum, [and that] we're not warehousing it." She said that CTIA is going to continue to work towards the goal President Barack Obama laid out in 2010 to free up 500 MHz of spectrum for mobile and fixed wireless broadband use by 2020.

Baker said CTIA might push to go beyond that but wants to hit that milestone. Baker added that CTIA is also focused on sharing spectrum with federal agencies. "I want us to be at the forefront of sharing, and I want us to be able to test it and see how we can collaborate more successfully than we have in the past," she said.