Frequency Spectrum Management

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The management of a communications suite will be changing over the next 10 years due to a 2010 Presidential Memorandum directing the Secretary of Commerce, working through the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA), to collaborate with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to make a total of 500 megahertz of Federal and nonfederal spectrum available for mobile and fixed wireless broadband use. The reallocation of the frequency spectrum will nearly double the amount of the commercial spectrum and should spur investment, economic growth, and job creation while supporting the growing demand by consumers and businesses for wireless broadband services (National Telecommunications & Information Administration, n.d.).

The need to reallocate the frequency spectrum by the FCC and NTIA is necessary due to the expansion of digital wireless communications. A digital wireless communications circuit requires four times the bandwidth of an analog wireless communications circuit. The shift to digital television, satellite TV, HD TV, and the increase in cell phone usage and cell phones with data plans have been the leading cause for the need to reallocate the frequency spectrum.

The radio spectrum has become a natural resource that has traditionally been managed by administrative processes through government institutions. Technical and marketplace changes have created an environment of faster decision making and an increased economic importance for radio based services. Countries around the world are investigating, experimenting, and implementing alternative ways to manage the frequency spectrum. Wireless technology delivers information to individuals with cell phones, portable laptops, and tablet compute...

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National Telecommunications, & Information Administration. (n.d.). 500 MHz initiative. Retrieved November 25, 2011, from National Telecommunications and Information Administration Web site: http://www.ntia.doc.gov/category/500-mhz-initiative

Obama, B. (June 28, 2010). Presidential memorandum: Unleashing the wireless broadband revolution. Retrieved November 25, 2011, from The White House Web site: http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/presidential-memorandum-unleashing-wireless-broadband-revolution

Ryckman, M. (2011, June). Narrowbanding. Public Management Magazine, 93(5), 20.

U.S. Department of Commerce. (Ed.). (2010). Exploring the digital nation: Home broadband internet adoption in the United States. Washington, DC: National Telecommunications and Information Administration. (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. ED513443)

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