[Federal Register Volume 78, Number 119 (Thursday, June 20, 2013)]
[Presidential Documents]
[Pages 37431-37435]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2013-14971]
Presidential Documents
Federal Register / Vol. 78, No. 119 / Thursday, June 20, 2013 /
Presidential Documents
[[Page 37431]]
Memorandum of June 14, 2013
Expanding America's Leadership in Wireless
Innovation
Memorandum for the Heads of Executive Departments and
Agencies
A combination of American entrepreneurship and
innovation, private investment, and smart policy has
positioned the United States as the global leader in
wireless broadband technologies. Expanding the
availability of spectrum for innovative and flexible
commercial uses, including for broadband services, will
further promote our Nation's economic development by
providing citizens and businesses with greater speed
and availability of coverage, encourage further
development of cutting-edge wireless technologies,
applications, and services, and help reduce usage
charges for households and businesses. We must continue
to make additional spectrum available as promptly as
possible for the benefit of consumers and businesses.
At the same time, we must ensure that Federal, State,
local, tribal, and territorial governments are able to
maintain mission critical capabilities that depend on
spectrum today, as well as effectively and efficiently
meet future requirements.
In my memorandum of June 28, 2010 (Unleashing the
Wireless Broadband Revolution), I directed the
Secretary of Commerce, working through the National
Telecommunications and Information Administration
(NTIA), to collaborate with the Federal Communications
Commission (FCC) to make 500 MHz of Federal and
nonfederal spectrum available for wireless broadband
use within 10 years. Executive departments and agencies
(agencies), including NTIA, have done an excellent job
of pursuing the twin goals of advancing their agency
missions and promoting innovation and economic growth.
Although existing efforts will almost double the amount
of spectrum available for wireless broadband, we must
make available even more spectrum and create new
avenues for wireless innovation. One means of doing so
is by allowing and encouraging shared access to
spectrum that is currently allocated exclusively for
Federal use. Where technically and economically
feasible, sharing can and should be used to enhance
efficiency among all users and expedite commercial
access to additional spectrum bands, subject to
adequate interference protection for Federal users,
especially users with national security, law
enforcement, and safety-of-life responsibilities. In
order to meet growing Federal spectrum requirements, we
should also seek to eliminate restrictions on
commercial carriers' ability to negotiate sharing
arrangements with agencies. To further these efforts,
while still safeguarding protected incumbent systems
that are vital to Federal interests and economic
growth, this memorandum directs agencies and offices to
take a number of additional actions to accelerate
shared access to spectrum.
Therefore, by the authority vested in me as President
by the Constitution and the laws of the United States
of America, including the Federal Property and
Administrative Services Act, 40 U.S.C. 101 et seq., and
in order to promote economy and efficiency in Federal
procurement, I hereby direct the following:
Section 1. Spectrum Policy Team. (a) The Chief
Technology Officer and the Director of the National
Economic Council, or their designees, shall co-chair a
Spectrum Policy Team that shall include representatives
from the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), the
National Security Staff, and the Council of Economic
Advisers. The Spectrum Policy Team shall work with NTIA
to implement this memorandum. The Spectrum Policy Team
may invite the FCC to provide advice and assistance.
[[Page 37432]]
(b) The Spectrum Policy Team shall monitor and
support advances in spectrum sharing policies and
technologies. Within 1 year of the date of this
memorandum, the Spectrum Policy Team shall publish a
report describing how NTIA and FCC are incorporating
spectrum sharing into their spectrum management
practices. The report shall include recommendations
that enable more productive uses of spectrum throughout
our economy and society and protect the current and
future mission capabilities of agencies. The Spectrum
Policy Team shall also assess national security, law
enforcement, safety-of-life, economic, scientific,
social, international, and other policy considerations
related to licensed and unlicensed spectrum use,
including standardization as well as the extent to
which the revenue potential of spectrum auctions
affects spectrum policy.
Sec. 2. Collaboration on Spectrum Sharing. (a) The
Secretary of Commerce, working through NTIA, has been
facilitating discussions between agencies and
nonfederal entities that have produced an unprecedented
level of information-sharing and collaboration to
identify opportunities for agencies to relinquish or
share spectrum, currently focusing on the 1695-1710 MHz
band, the 1755-1850 MHz band, and the 5350-5470 and
5850-5925 MHz bands. The NTIA shall continue to
facilitate these discussions and the sharing of data to
expedite commercial entry into these bands where
possible, provided that the mission capabilities of
Federal systems designed to operate in these bands are
maintained and protected, including through relocation,
either to alternative spectrum or non-spectrum
dependent systems, or through acceptable sharing
arrangements. These discussions shall also be expanded
to encompass more spectrum bands that may be candidates
for shared access, specifically those in the range
below 6 GHz, subject to the protection of the
capabilities of Federal systems designed to operate in
those bands.
(b) Within 3 months of the date of this memorandum,
the Secretary of Commerce, working through NTIA and the
National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST),
and building on the results from the Networking and
Information Technology Research and Development
Program, shall publish an inventory and description of
Federal test facilities available to commercial and
other stakeholders engaged in research, development,
testing, and evaluation of technologies to enhance
spectrum sharing and other spectrum-related
efficiencies. To maximize the productive use of these
facilities and to facilitate greater collaboration
among agencies and nonfederal stakeholders, the
Secretary of Commerce, working through NTIA, NIST, and
other appropriate agencies, shall, within 6 months of
the date of this memorandum, establish a plan for the
development and promulgation of standard policies, best
practices, and templates governing the following:
research, development, testing, and evaluation of
spectrum sharing technologies by and among commercial,
Government, and academic stakeholders at Federal
facilities.
(c) All policies, practices, and templates shall be
subject to safeguards reasonably necessary to protect
classified, sensitive, and proprietary data. Within 6
months of the date of this memorandum, the Spectrum
Policy Team, in consultation with the Department of
Justice, the National Archives and Records
Administration, the Office of the Director of National
Intelligence, and other appropriate agencies, shall,
consistent with applicable law, including 5 U.S.C. 552,
as amended by Public Law 107-306 and Public Law 11-175,
and Executive Order 13526 of December 29, 2009
(Classified National Security Information), implement
policies for the sharing with authorized nonfederal
parties of classified, sensitive, or proprietary data
regarding assignments, utilization of spectrum, system
configurations, business plans, and other information.
Sec. 3. Agency Usage of Spectrum. (a) The NTIA, in
consultation with the Spectrum Policy Team and
appropriate agencies, shall include in its Fourth
Interim Report required by section 1(d) of my
memorandum of June 28, 2010, a plan directing
applicable agencies to provide quantitative assessments
of the actual usage of spectrum in those spectrum bands
that NTIA previously identified and prioritized in its
Third Interim Report and such
[[Page 37433]]
other bands as NTIA and the Spectrum Policy Team
determine have the greatest potential to be shared with
nonfederal users. Each agency's assessment shall be
prepared according to such metrics and other parameters
as are reasonably necessary to determine the extent to
which spectrum assigned to the agency could potentially
be made available for sharing with or release to
commercial users, particularly in major metropolitan
areas, without adversely affecting agencies' missions,
especially those related to national security, law
enforcement, and safety of life. Each assessment shall
also include a discussion of projected increases in
spectrum usage and needs and shall identify where
access to nonfederal spectrum could aid in fulfilling
agency missions. The plan shall further require each
agency to submit its assessments to NTIA and the
Spectrum Policy Team within 12 months of the plan's
release. In identifying spectrum bands with the
greatest potential to be shared, NTIA and the Spectrum
Policy Team shall consider the number and nature of
Federal and nonfederal systems in a band, the technical
suitability of the band for shared use, international
implications, any potential for relocating Federal
systems to comparable spectrum or otherwise enabling
comparable capabilities, and other factors NTIA and the
Spectrum Policy Team deem relevant based on
consultation with agencies and other stakeholders. A
band shall be identified as a candidate for shared
access under this subsection only if it has been
likewise identified under section 2(a) of this
memorandum.
(b) The reporting of information under this section
shall be subject to existing safeguards protecting
classified, sensitive, and proprietary data. The NTIA
shall release a summary of the assessments publicly to
the extent consistent with law. The NTIA and the
Spectrum Policy Team shall make any appropriate
recommendations regarding the possible availability of
spectrum in the subject bands for innovative and
flexible commercial uses, including broadband, taking
into account factors such as the nature of the Federal
systems in the bands and the extent to which those
systems occupy and use the bands.
(c) The NTIA shall design and conduct a pilot
program to monitor spectrum usage in real time in
selected communities throughout the country to
determine whether a comprehensive monitoring program in
major metropolitan areas could disclose opportunities
for more efficient spectrum access, including via
sharing. The NTIA shall work with agencies to ensure
the program will not reveal sensitive or classified
information. The NTIA shall consult with each agency to
determine the correct technical parameters to monitor
usage.
(d) Within 6 months of the date of this memorandum,
NTIA shall take such actions as are necessary to
require that each agency's regular reviews of its
frequency assignments include a quantitative assessment
of its actual usage of spectrum under such assignments.
(e) The NTIA shall also take such actions as are
necessary to require that an agency requesting a
frequency assignment or spectrum certification for
systems operating between 400 MHz and 6 GHz verify that
it must operate in this critical range, and that it
will use the minimum spectrum reasonably necessary to
most effectively meet mission requirements. The
requesting agency shall also verify that it is not
reasonable to satisfy such requirements in some other
manner, such as at higher frequencies, via commercial
services, or via a system that is not spectrum-
dependent, whether due to cost, technology,
implementation, performance reasons, international
obligations, or other practical or legal constraints.
In the case of system certification requests only, the
requesting agency shall also present with its request a
narrative explaining why its proposed solution will
most effectively meet its mission requirements, in
light of potential alternative approaches and all
practical and legal constraints. Further, requesting
agencies shall identify spectrum that will no longer be
used by any legacy systems that are replaced. In
implementing this subsection, NTIA shall take all steps
necessary to protect against disclosure of sensitive
and classified information.
[[Page 37434]]
Sec. 4. Spectrum Efficiency in Procurements. Agencies
shall include spectrum efficiency when considering
procurement of spectrum-dependent systems and hardware,
as a technical requirement, an evaluation criterion for
award, or both. The Director of OMB, in consultation
with NTIA, shall develop and incorporate spectrum
efficiency guidelines into budget and procurement
processes. These guidelines shall facilitate, as
appropriate, the design and procurement of systems that
increase flexibility through means such as multiple-
band tuning capabilities and the use of commercial
systems. The guidelines also shall require, to the
extent possible, procurements of Federal systems such
that emission levels resulting from reasonable use of
adjacent spectrum will not impair the functioning of
such systems, consistent with any applicable radio
receiver performance criteria and international
obligations.
Sec. 5. Performance Criteria for Radio Receivers. The
FCC is strongly encouraged, in consultation with NTIA,
where appropriate, the industry, and other
stakeholders, to develop to the fullest extent of its
legal authority a program of performance criteria,
ratings, and other measures, including standards, to
encourage the design, manufacture, and sale of radio
receivers such that emission levels resulting from
reasonable use of adjacent spectrum will not endanger
the functioning of the receiver or seriously degrade,
obstruct, or repeatedly interrupt the operations of the
receiver. In developing such a program, the FCC is
strongly encouraged to give due consideration to
existing policies and prudent investments that have
been previously made in systems, including receivers.
In its consultation with the FCC, NTIA shall provide
information regarding Federal receiver standards and
agency practices under those standards.
Sec. 6. Incentives for Agencies. The Spectrum Policy
Team shall, within 6 months of the date of this
memorandum, publish a report making recommendations to
the President regarding market-based or other
approaches that could give agencies greater incentive
to share or relinquish spectrum, while protecting the
mission capabilities of existing and future systems
that rely on spectrum use. The report shall consider
whether the Spectrum Currency and Spectrum Efficiency
Fund proposals made by the President's Council of
Advisors on Science and Technology would be effective.
The report shall also analyze the impact of the
Commercial Spectrum Enhancement Act of 2004 (Title II
of Public Law 108-494), as modified by the Middle Class
Tax Relief and Job Creation Act of 2012 (Public Law
112-96).
Sec. 7. Rapid Deployment of Wireless Broadband. The FCC
is strongly encouraged, in collaboration with NTIA,
where appropriate, to expedite the repurposing of
spectrum and otherwise enable innovative and flexible
commercial uses of spectrum, including broadband, to be
deployed as rapidly as possible by:
(a) identifying spectrum allocated for nonfederal
uses that can be made available for licensed and
unlicensed wireless broadband services and devices, and
other innovative and flexible uses of spectrum, while
fairly accommodating the rights and reasonable
expectations of incumbent users;
(b) identifying spectrum allocated for nonfederal
uses that can be made available to agencies, on a
shared or exclusive basis, particularly where necessary
to accommodate agencies seeking to relocate systems out
of bands that could be made available for licensed
services or unlicensed devices;
(c) promulgating and enforcing rules for licensed
services to provide strong incentives for licensees to
put spectrum to use and avoid spectrum warehousing.
Such rules may include build-out requirements or other
licensing conditions as appropriate for the particular
circumstance;
(d) establishing and maintaining conditions that
promote a reliable secondary market for spectrum,
including provisions enabling negotiated access by
agencies and uses not addressed in subsection (b) of
this section;
[[Page 37435]]
(e) promulgating and enforcing rules for licensed
services and unlicensed devices to share Federal
spectrum that accommodate mission changes and
technology updates by both Federal and nonfederal
users; and
(f) consulting with the Department of State
regarding international obligations related to spectrum
use.
Sec. 8. General Provisions. (a) Nothing in this
memorandum shall be construed to impair or otherwise
affect:
(i) the authority granted by law to any agency, or
the head thereof; or
(ii) the functions of the Director of OMB relating
to budgetary, administrative, or legislative proposals.
(b) 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 interest of
national security or public safety.
(c) This memorandum shall be implemented consistent
with applicable law and subject to the availability of
appropriations.
(d) 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.
(e) Independent agencies are strongly encouraged to
comply with the requirements of this memorandum.
(f) The Presidential Memorandum of November 30,
2004 (Improving Spectrum Management for the 21st
Century), is hereby revoked.
(g) The Secretary of Commerce is authorized and
directed to publish this memorandum in the Federal
Register.
(Presidential Sig.)
THE WHITE HOUSE,
Washington, June 14, 2013.
[FR Doc. 2013-14971
Filed 6-19-13; 11:15 am]
Billing code 3510-07