Spectrum Management

By: Assistant Secretary Alan Davidson

NTIA is like a start-up within the federal government, despite being nearly 45 years old. We’ve had the explosive growth of a new organization in my first year at the helm: Over one third of current NTIA staff was not here when I took the oath of office in January. While NTIA is still a small agency by government standards, we punched above our weight class in 2022. We delivered on programs to improve Internet connectivity while also notching big wins on spectrum policy, international standards, and other important tech policy issues.

On broadband, NTIA spent 2022 making down payments on our future investments in connecting everyone in America to affordable, reliable, high-speed Internet service. And those down payments weren’t small – we've awarded $2.3 billion in funding to nearly 300 entities as we advance the Biden-Harris Administration’s goal of closing the digital divide. Highlights from the year included:

NTIA submits the attached letter from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) for inclusion in the above-captioned docket involving a waiver request by Ericsson to enable multiband devices for the 3.45 GHz and 3.7 GHz services. NTIA supports the FAA withdrawal of its concerns regarding the waiver, specifically in terms of out-of-band emissions into the 4.2-4.4 GHz band.

NTIA, on behalf of the Executive Branch and consistent with its responsibility to ensure that the views of the Executive Branch are effectively presented to the Commission, provides these comments in response to the Notice of Inquiry (NOI). There are a variety of federal uses of 12.7-13.25 GHz and adjacent bands, as well as commercial uses that are important to federal missions. NTIA, therefore, is concerned about the potential for harmful in-band and adjacent-band interference if the 12.7-13.25 GHz band (12.7 GHz band) is repurposed as contemplated in the NOI.