500 MHz Initiative
A 2010 Presidential Memorandum directed the Secretary of Commerce, working through NTIA, to collaborate with the Federal Communications Commission to make available a total of 500 megahertz of Federal and nonfederal spectrum over the next 10 years for mobile and fixed wireless broadband use.
This initiative, to nearly double the amount of commercial spectrum, will spur investment, economic growth, and job creation while supporting the growing demand by consumers and businesses for wireless broadband services.
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NIST and NTIA Announce Plans to Establish New Center for Advanced Communications
BOULDER, Colo. - The U.S. Department of Commerce’s National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) today announced plans to establish a national Center for Advanced Communications in Boulder, Colo. The new center will implement a key provision of a memorandum President Obama issued earlier today on “Expanding America’s Leadership in Wireless Innovation.”
Administration Advances Wireless Spectrum for Economic Growth
President Obama today issued a Presidential Memorandum that builds on the Administration’s commitment to make additional spectrum available for wireless broadband to drive innovation, expand consumer services, and increase job creation and economic growth. The memorandum establishes a set of measures that Federal agencies, in collaboration with industry and other stakeholders, will now take to more aggressively enhance spectrum efficiency and enable access to more spectrum for consumer services and applications.
Many of the new measures are common-sense ways to improve spectrum efficiency. Under the memorandum, an agency that requests a new spectrum assignment or that seeks to procure a spectrum-dependent system will have to document its consideration of alternative approaches and verify that it is pursuing the most spectrum-efficient method, in consideration of all relevant factors including cost and agency mission.
Statement of Assistant Secretary for Communications and Information and NTIA Administrator Lawrence E. Strickling on the Spectrum Presidential Memorandum
“The President’s action today confirms and strengthens the efforts of NTIA, working with other federal agencies, to allocate 500 megahertz of spectrum by 2020 for wireless broadband services while balancing the spectrum needs of federal agencies. Spectrum is an important driver of economic growth and innovation. The Presidential Memorandum will encourage greater collaboration between industry and the government necessary to facilitate greater sharing of spectrum and ensure that agencies will utilize spectrum as efficiently as possible.”