The FCC has created an intra-agency spectrum task force
to promote its goal of reclaiming spectrum for wireless broadband.
The task force will include the chiefs of the Enforcement,
International, Media, and Public Safety and Homeland Security bureaus, and the
Office of Strategic Planning and Policy Analysis.
It will be headed by Julius Knapp, chief of the Office of
Engineering Technology and Ruth Milkman, chief of the Wireless
Telecommunications Bureau.
Among other things, the task force will coordinate long-term
spectrum planning and implementing recommendations in the national broadband
plan that, among other things, anticipates reclaiming 120 MHZ of spectrum from
broadcasters within five years.
But if a bill in Congress passes as expected, the commission
will also have to do a thorough inventory of spectrum availability and use it
as part of its plan, something the task force is also likely to have to be
involved with.
FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski has also pledged to include
stakeholders in the process. He told broadcasters at the National Association
of Broadcasters convention earlier this month that he planned to convene an engineers'
forum, "which will enlist broadcast, mobile and other engineers to address
concrete technical issues raised by the plan and help develop the best path
forward."
There has been no announcement yet about the formation
of that group.
