NTIA Appendix to the National Plan on Unlicensed and Licensed by Rule Operations in Furtherance of the Ray Baum's Act

This Appendix was prepared by the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA), in consultation with the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), and was sent to Congress and shared with the Federal Communication Commission in response to Section 618(d) of the MOBILE NOW Act. It considers how the Spectrum Relocation Fund (SRF) could be reformed to address costs incurred by Federal entities related to sharing radio frequency bands with radio technologies conducting unlicensed or licensed-by-rule operations and how the SRF could cover such costs along with other authorized expenditures and budgetary expectations. Specifically, this report includes four potential options Congress might consider for legislative reform to facilitate reimbursement of eligible Federal entities for costs associated with researching, planning for, and enabling access to frequencies by unlicensed wireless devices or other technologies operating on a licensed-by-rule basis. In brief, the four options involve appropriating or authorizing funds from not yet scored auctions, from existing SRF balances, or from new sources, such as usage fees; or from spectrum leasing revenue.