Unleashing the Wireless Broadband Revolution

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Part V

The President

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Memorandum of June 28, 2010--Unleashing the Wireless Broadband
Revolution

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Title 3--
The President

Memorandum of June 28, 2010

Unleashing the Wireless Broadband Revolution

Memorandum for the Heads of Executive Departments and
Agencies

America's future competitiveness and global technology
leadership depend, in part, upon the availability of
additional spectrum. The world is going wireless, and
we must not fall behind. The resurgence of American
productivity growth that started in the 1990s largely
reflects investments by American companies, the public
sector, and citizens in the new communications
technologies that are what we know today as the
Internet. The Internet, as vital infrastructure, has
become central to the daily economic life of almost
every American by creating unprecedented opportunities
for small businesses and individual entrepreneurs. We
are now beginning the next transformation in
information technology: the wireless broadband
revolution.

Few technological developments hold as much potential
to enhance America's economic competitiveness, create
jobs, and improve the quality of our lives as wireless
high-speed access to the Internet. Innovative new
mobile technologies hold the promise for a virtuous
cycle--millions of consumers gain faster access to more
services at less cost, spurring innovation, and then a
new round of consumers benefit from new services. The
wireless revolution has already begun with millions of
Americans taking advantage of wireless access to the
Internet.

Expanded wireless broadband access will trigger the
creation of innovative new businesses, provide cost-
effective connections in rural areas, increase
productivity, improve public safety, and allow for the
development of mobile telemedicine, telework, distance
learning, and other new applications that will
transform Americans' lives.

Spectrum and the new technologies it enables also are
essential to the Federal Government, which relies on
spectrum for important activities, such as emergency
communications, national security, law enforcement,
aviation, maritime, space communications, and numerous
other Federal functions. Spectrum is also critical for
many State, local, and tribal government functions. As
the wireless broadband revolution unfolds, innovation
can enable efficient and imaginative uses of spectrum
to maintain and enhance the Government's capabilities.

In order to achieve mobile wireless broadband's full
potential, we need an environment where innovation
thrives, and where new capabilities also are secure,
trustworthy, and provide appropriate safeguards for
users' privacy. These characteristics will continue to
be important to the adoption of mobile wireless
broadband.

This new era in global technology leadership will only
happen if there is adequate spectrum available to
support the forthcoming myriad of wireless devices,
networks, and applications that can drive the new
economy. To do so, we can use our American ingenuity to
wring abundance from scarcity, by finding ways to use
spectrum more efficiently. We can also unlock the value
of otherwise underutilized spectrum and open new
avenues for spectrum users to derive value through the
development of advanced, situation-aware spectrum-
sharing technologies.

I therefore am hereby directing that executive
departments, agencies, and offices, and strongly
encourage that independent agencies, take the following
steps:

Section 1. The Secretary of Commerce, working through
the National Telecommunications and Information
Administration (NTIA), shall:

(a) collaborate with the Federal Communications
Commission (FCC) to make available a total of 500 MHz
of Federal and nonfederal spectrum over the next 10
years, suitable for both mobile and fixed wireless
broadband use. The spectrum must be available to be
licensed by the FCC for exclusive use or made available
for shared access by commercial and Government users in
order to enable licensed or unlicensed wireless
broadband technologies to be deployed;

(b) collaborate with the FCC to complete by October 1,
2010, a specific Plan and Timetable for identifying and
making available 500 MHz of spectrum as described in
subsection (a) of this section. For purposes of
successfully implementing any repurposing of existing
spectrum in accordance with subsection (a) of this
section, the Plan and Timetable must take into account
the need to ensure no loss of critical existing and
planned Federal, State, local, and tribal government
capabilities, the international implications, and the
need for appropriate enforcement mechanisms and
authorities;

(c) convene the Policy and Plans Steering Group (PPSG)
to advise NTIA on achieving the objectives in
subsections (a) and (b) of this section. The
Secretaries of Defense, the Treasury, Transportation,
State, the Interior, Agriculture, Energy, and Homeland
Security, the Attorney General, the Administrators of
the National Aeronautics and Space Administration
(NASA) and the Federal Aviation Administration, the
Director of National Intelligence, the Commandant of
the United States Coast Guard, and the head of any
other executive department or agency that is currently
authorized to use spectrum shall participate and
cooperate fully, or in the case of independent agencies
are strongly encouraged to, in the activities of the
Department of Commerce in accomplishing subsections (a)
and (b) of this section and promptly provide
appropriate funding and staff resources for agency
support to these efforts and the work of the PPSG; and

(d) submit, not later than 180 days after the Plan and
Timetable described in subsection (b) of this section
are completed, to the National Economic Council (NEC),
the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), and the
Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) an
interim report to assess progress against the Plan and
Timetable developed in accordance with subsection (b)
of this section. Additional interim reports shall be
submitted 180 days after the submission of the first
interim report and then annually thereafter until such
time as the Plan and Timetable are completed. In
preparing these reports, the Secretary of Commerce
shall work cooperatively with the FCC and other
relevant departments, agencies, and offices.

Sec. 2. The Director of OMB shall work with the
Secretary of Commerce, through NTIA and in consultation
with affected departments, agencies, and offices, to
incorporate into the Plan and Timetable referred to in
section 1(b) of this memorandum adequate funding,
incentives, and assistance to enable executive agencies
or other affected entities to accomplish the actions
specified in section 1(a) of this memorandum.

Sec. 3. The Secretary of Commerce, working through
NTIA, in consultation with the National Institute of
Standards and Technology, National Science Foundation
(NSF), the Department of Defense, the Department of
Justice, NASA, and other agencies as appropriate, shall
create and implement a plan to facilitate research,
development, experimentation, and testing by
researchers to explore innovative spectrum-sharing
technologies, including those that are secure and
resilient.

Sec. 4. The FCC is strongly encouraged to work closely
with the Department of Commerce, through NTIA, to carry
out this memorandum as it relates to the FCC, including
the repurposing of nonfederal Government spectrum as
appropriate and identifying the mechanisms necessary to
ensure compliance with the FCC's decisions.

Sec. 5. The NEC, the OMB, and the OSTP (in consultation
with the Department of Commerce, working through NTIA,
FCC, and the National Security Staff) shall assess,
based on the interim report developed pursuant to
section 1(d) of this memorandum, whether there has been
sufficient progress in achieving the objectives of this
memorandum or whether some other mechanism, such as an
independent review panel, is needed to address those
areas where sufficient progress is not occurring. The
NEC, the OMB, and the OSTP shall make any necessary
recommendations to the President regarding such
progress 45 days after receiving the initial interim
report required by section 1(d) of this memorandum and,
as appropriate, following subsequent reports.

Sec. 6.

(a) To the extent permitted by law and within existing
appropriations, the Department of Commerce, through
NTIA, shall provide administrative support for the
interagency groups created in this memorandum.

(b) Nothing in this memorandum shall be construed to
impair or otherwise affect the functions of the
Director of OMB relating to budgetary, administrative,
or legislative proposals.

(c) Nothing in this memorandum shall be construed to
require the disclosure of classified information, law
enforcement sensitive information, or other information
that must be protected in the interests of national
security.

(d) This memorandum shall be implemented consistent
with applicable law and subject to the availability of
appropriations.

(e) This memorandum is not intended to, and does not,
create any right or benefit, substantive or procedural,
enforceable at law or in equity by any party against
the United States, its departments, agencies, or
entities, its officers, employees, or agents, or any
other person.

Sec. 7. The Secretary of Commerce is authorized and
directed to publish this memorandum in the Federal
Register.

THE WHITE HOUSE,

Washington, June 28, 2010.