This week, the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) announced that it will analyze the 1755-1850 MHz band for commercial broadband licensing. This would be part of the 500 MHz of additional spectrum planned to be re-claimed over the next ten years for mobile broadband, as detailed in the National Broadband Plan."NTIA is conducting this evaluation as directed by President Obama to reach his goal of nearly doubling the amount of commercial spectrum available over the next decade, an initiative that will spur investment, economic growth, and job creation while supporting the growing demand by consumers and businesses for wireless broadband services. We look forward to our continued work with the FCC and other federal agencies as we work to free up additional spectrum while protecting vital government spectrum uses," said Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Communications and Information and NTIA Administrator Lawrence E. Strickling on Monday.Of course, NTIA has been eyeing this band of spectrum for more than a decade. In 2000, the administration put out a report (.PDF) that examined the band's viability as a potential vehicle for 3G mobile services. Currently, that block of spectrum is used by the Department of Defense, Federal law enforcement, and other government groups for satellite, surveillance, aeronautical operations, and fixed microwave communications, among other things.The most common uses of this range of spectrum are in military environments. It has been used for a system called Mobile Subscriber Equipment (MSE) with the US Army and Marines for tactical radio relay systems at military bases all over the country. They link the various military nodes into a single radio network, and the band experiences heavy congestion near military bases and training areas. Likewise, the Navy uses the band for DWTS, or the Digital Wideband Transmission System for point-to-point surface-based communications at Naval facilities, and the Air Force has used it for Air Combat Training Systems.NTIA says a quick turnaround is necessary, and calls for the analysis of this band to be completed by the end of this September 2011. Given the band's prior analysis more than a decade ago, and its overall readiness for use -- The Department of Commerce said it is "harmonized internationally for mobile operations, wireless equipment already exists and the band provides signal characteristics advantageous to mobile operations" -- this looks to be a transition that will be kept on schedule.
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