DOD Understands Carriers’ Need for Spectrum, Wheeler Says

Wheeler said DOD understands the importance of the broadband economy. “The bottom line -- there is no one at the senior level in DOD that does not believe that the strength of our nation is our economy,” he said. DOD officials can’t always engage in discussions with industry because of acquisition and legal rules, he said: “But there are more times than not when we can talk to you. … In past history, everything that was innovative came out of DOD, especially in a wartime scenario. Today, that’s not true necessarily.”

Vacating spectrum is a “difficult solution,” but sharing offers more promise, Wheeler said. “I don’t think there’s any one solution out there,” he said. “You're going to have vacating some particular areas. You're going to have sharing … and that’s going to get to our solution the quickest and the cheapest."

DOD already had to move operations out of the 1710-1755 MHz band, spectrum that became the AWS-1 band auctioned by the FCC, Wheeler said. “We were able to retune, to reset our systems,” he said. “We're working forward in the future to have a plan that connects all the dots, so that we don’t do multiple moves costing money to ourselves and the taxpayers for the future. … We want to do one move. We want to make sure that it makes sense, that it works hand in hand with industry and the international requirements as well.” DOD has hired additional staff to “make sure that we get it right, to make sure that we have a plan,” he said.

Wheeler said one complicating factor in the 1755-1850 MHz band, which is being examined by the administration for sharing between federal and commercial users, is a key combat training system. “That combat training system that is on all of our aircraft, and we're talking thousands of aircraft,” he said. “It allows us to do rehearsals. It allows us to practice combat and to actually grade our folks. It’s the ability, if you will, to do Top Gun on steroids out there, to go out there and practice.” Wheeler also acknowledged that he has worries beyond spectrum.

"What do I worry about? What keeps me up at night?” Wheeler asked. “Speed of change. DOD has not been … the best at the speed of change. You represent the speed of change that we have never seen in our nation, so you turn over technologies much quicker than our acquisition does. We're good at change within the military. We're not always good at employing that from a technological perspective, because of the acquisition cycle, and we're working through that very quickly the best we can."

Cybersecurity is also a big issue at DOD, Wheeler said. “If things are moving that quick and our acquisition cycle is not, we can get us into a situation where cybersecurity ends up becoming an issue because we can’t move as fast as the adversary is moving.” Mobility is also a big DOD focus, and the department recently released a new mobile strategy and is preparing an implementation plan, Wheeler said. Defense has 21 separate mobility pilots under way, he noted. Voice, video and data are now all available on wireless devices, he said. “How do we exploit that to make our productivity curve jump within DOD and the federal government as a whole?"

FCC Commissioner Ajit Pai told conference attendees they should feel fortunate that the wireless world, so far, has faced less regulation than wireline. “How to describe that regulation? It’s pervasive, and it’s not pretty,” Pai said. “The FCC caps the prices telephone companies can charge their customers, and all customers in a given area have to pay the same price; that’s called tariffing. To help the FCC calculate the ‘right price,’ many companies have to file stacks of paper called cost studies. To prop up inefficient companies, the rules employ hidden subsidies. And these are just some of the federal regulations. States regulate wired telephone companies too, and each does it a little bit differently. All of this is good for the lawyers but not so good for everyone else."

Pai, a Republican, countered more optimistic comments by Chairman Julius Genachowski, who said last week the administration is on track to meet spectrum targets (CD Oct 5 p1). “The National Broadband Plan identified 50 MHz that was already in the pipeline in 2010 and set a goal of holding two spectrum auctions in 2011,” Pai said in prepared remarks. “But the FCC didn’t hold any, and hasn’t for more than four years,” he said. “The Plan called for repurposing spectrum already in the commercial marketplace. But the FCC hasn’t effectively repurposed any. Between auctions and repurposing, the FCC was supposed to make 180 MHz available for mobile broadband in 2010 and 2011. But we still haven’t moved the needle. Zero for 180 is a terrible batting average in any league, and I'm all too familiar with subpar hitting as a Kansas City Royals fan.”