How to improve federal spectrum systems

[Commentary] I’m developing the idea of creating a Federal Spectrum Service, a government chartered for-profit corporation, to serve as the owner of all federal spectrum.

The FSS would control all federal spectrum use and manage it according to a ten-year plan for reducing the federal spectrum footprint in two stages. In the first stage, the FSS would be required to reduce the federal spectrum footprint by 50%, and in the second stage it would be required to reduce it by 50% once again. The spectrum thus liberated would be auctioned for public use.

Once this mission is accomplished, the FSS would cease to exist unless Congress explicitly re-authorized it to continue in some form. The FSS would have the power to meet this mandate, as it would assume immediate ownership and control of all federal systems that use spectrum directly, either as transmitters or receivers. Therefore, the FSS would be able to replace current systems with new ones that would use spectrum more efficiently and to auction the spectrum it frees up for public uses.

As a single entity with control of federal spectrum use, the FSS would not be affected by agency infighting and the fragmentation of spectrum expertise across the panoply of agencies. If the FSS finds the PCAST Report’s sharing recommendations sensible, it would be able to test them by having agencies share spectrum with each other.

While all of the liberated spectrum would be auctioned, it wouldn’t all necessarily go to the highest bidder. The proceeds from auctioning federal spectrum would easily pay for the equipment upgrades that would make even more spectrum available.