DOD and NAB Reach Agreement for Sharing on 2025-2110 MHz Band, NTIA Says

The agreement, as NTIA described it in its letter, proposes that the FCC and NTIA add “fixed” and “mobile” allocations in the 2025 MHz band to the Federal Table of Frequency Allocations. The agreement would also see the FCC and NTIA insert new footnotes on the federal spectrum table that would limit federal operations on the band to the U.S. military and would specify coordination requirements for new military operations on the band. DOD would need to codify any coordination through a memorandum of understanding with broadcasters in the Television Broadcast Auxiliary Service, the Cable Television Relay Service or the Local Television Transmission Service, NTIA said. The DOD-NAB agreement would also seek the deletion of a footnote on the federal spectrum table that allows the U.S. military to operate services in the 2025-2110 MHz band on a secondary and coordinated basis at six western U.S. sites, including Nellis Air Force Base, Nev., and White Sands Missile Range, N.M. The DOD-NAB agreement would provide better coordination than what was included in that footnote, but the six stations will need to be accounted for under the new plan, NTIA said.

The agreement will allow DOD to “use this spectrum efficiently, taking into account national security requirements and the need to have the flexibility to share with non-federal fixed and mobile operators in the Television Broadcast Auxiliary Service, the Cable Television Relay Service or the Local Television Transmission Service,” NTIA said. Military operations in the band would protect broadcasters and “would not constrain the activities of these non-federal services,” NTIA said. “Non-federal operations in the band would make all reasonable efforts to accommodate military mobile and fixed operations in the band.” DOD agreed to use “agile” technologies that will allow the military to tune to other bands when there are conflicts with broadcasters. The DOD-NAB agreement also removes the 5150-5250 MHz band from future consideration as a possible destination band for DOD aeronautical mobile telemetry systems, giving the FCC “greater flexibility” in the future to open up the 5 GHz band for unlicensed broadband use, NTIA said.

Broadcasters would have “primacy” in their use of the band, while DOD use is restricted to its bases, said NAB Executive Vice President Rick Kaplan on a conference call with reporters Monday. DOD would have to defer to broadcast operations in the case of a conflict between uses, he said. Though some details about how that would work need to be fleshed out, he said they would be finalized within months. The deal gives broadcasters “greater long-term certainty,” he said. A big step in moving the deal forward was DOD’s agreement that it would be the only federal agency to share the spectrum with NAB, Kaplan said. The FCC could still decide to give the spectrum to the wireless industry, but such an outcome is unlikely, he said. “This is very good for wireless."

Senate Commerce Committee leaders praised the DOD-NAB agreement. Committee Chairman Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., said in a statement that the agreement is a “welcome step forward to a final transition plan to free up the 1755-1780 MHz band for commercial use. … Today’s action moves us one step closer to maximizing auction revenues in order to provide critical funding for FirstNet.” Committee ranking member John Thune, R-S.D., said in a statement that the agreement “marks a critical step toward finally auctioning the 1755 MHz band. I have been working for over a year to get the key agencies to take action on reallocating this spectrum, and I am happy that the administration has listened to the bipartisan calls from Congress to grow our economy by freeing up these valuable airwaves while addressing our military’s needs.” Rep. Doris Matsui, D-Calif., said the agreement “will responsibly relocate DoD to a comparable band that does not in any way jeopardize our nation’s military capabilities. That was the goal from the start and I'm pleased that the process is meeting that objective. The agreement will also inch us one step closer towards injecting additional spectrum into our innovation economy. It is a win for American consumers and for our military.”

CTIA believes the DOD-NAB agreement is “an important step forward to ensuring the U.S. wireless industry has access to additional licensed spectrum to meet continued consumer demand,” said Scott Bergmann, CTIA vice president-regulatory affairs, in a statement. “We are hopeful that the 1755-1780 MHz band is ready in time to pair with 2155-2180 MHz band, as the industry has long sought. Pairing these bands will maximize their value to industry and consumers alike, and generate significant revenue for the U.S. Treasury."

NTIA’s letter also acted as formal submission of reports out of the Commerce Spectrum Management Advisory Committee on the 1695-1710 MHz band and the 1755-1850 MHz band, which helped to encourage the DOD’s 1755 MHz band proposal. NTIA said it agreed with the FCC on the need for preserving federal users’ access to AWS-3 spectrum on federal land in unpopulated areas, saying federal spectrum needs require “intermittent or geographically limited tactical and training operations that do not hinder the nationwide implementation of wireless broadband services.”