DOD Still Needs a High-Level Push to Negotiate on Spectrum: O'Rielly
The U.S. will meet its spectrum goals only if DOD is forced to come to the table to give up spectrum, former FCC Commissioner Mike O’Rielly said Monday in an opinion piece. “For historical reasons, [DOD] is sitting on some of the most desirable spectrum bands in the entire nation … based on decisions made half a century or more ago.” As policymakers push for the reallocation of federal spectrum, the DOD holds an estimated 80% of the government spectrum portfolio, O’Rielly wrote. “It’s as if the Interior Department was previously awarded almost all of Manhattan two centuries ago, then said no commercial development.”
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DOD “intransigence is the primary reason Federal spectrum auction authority expired three years ago and it took the engagement of the President’s team to restore,” he said. On the few occasions when DOD has had to give up spectrum, department officials “repeatedly slow-rolled implementation trying to force a reconsideration or to wait until a new administration was elected.”