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The Biden administration unveiled its national spectrum strategy on Monday, laying out how the federal government can better coordinate to free up valuable radio frequencies for the country’s connectivity needs.
Access to the invisible airwaves that allow smartphones and a plethora of other connected devices to communicate with each other is an increasingly hot-button topic as government users—especially national security agencies—and the private sector jockey for use of the same bands.
The White House’s “blueprint” aims to ease some of the competition by establishing a pipeline that makes new spectrum bands available for commercial use, guiding a long-term planning effort to keep up with evolving spectrum needs, and encouraging innovative methods for sharing valuable bands among multiple users.
“Spectrum is a limited resource that enables the everyday and the extraordinary—from checking the weather on our phone to traveling into space. As demand for this resource increases, the US will continue to lead the world in spectrum innovation, and President Biden’s bold vision for spectrum policy will provide the foundation for that leadership,” Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo said in a statement.
The strategy hits on an (increasingly rare) point of bipartisan agreement. House Energy and Commerce Committee leaders Cathy McMorris Rodgers, a Washington Republican, and Frank Pallone, a New Jersey Democrat, praised the roadmap in a joint statement. They noted that a clear spectrum leadership plan impacts “everything from our military’s radar capabilities to the mobile broadband and GPS systems Americans rely on every day.”
One uniting force? Lawmakers have seen what happens when spectrum leadership channels break down. During the Trump administration, a high-profile spectrum allocation dispute pitted the Federal Communications Commission and 5G commercial interests against NASA and the weather forecasting community. Another reorganization plan sparked fears that 5G signals would interfere with airplane altimeters, and led to friction between the FCC and Federal Aviation Administration.
As part of Monday’s package, the Biden administration released a memorandum that outlines how agencies should work together to “ensure that spectrum management, usage, and allocation decisions are coordinated, consistent, and reflect the needs and diverse missions of agencies and non-federal users.”