A Technology Driven Spectrum Policy

Hello readers, my name is Benjamin Lennett, and I work with Sascha at the New America Foundation's Wireless Future Program as well as contribute to the foundation's Open Technology Initiative (OTI).

Last week, OTI, along with Iarla Flynn, European Policy Manager for Google, submitted a filing to Ireland's Spectrum Policy Consultation . The document, A Technology Driven Spectrum Policy, lays out a new vision for Ireland's Spectrum Policy in the 21st Century. The document focuses on encouraging unlicensed access and cognitive radio technology to promote a more efficient, flexible, open, and inclusive approach to spectrum management.

The following is a summary of the filing:

A Unique Opportunity for Ireland

Ireland is in a unique and enviable position. Its geographic locations and relative lack of congestion in most spectrum bands, provide Ireland with the flexibility and freedom to become a policy innovator in spectrum management, allowing it to quickly reallocate valuable spectrum to further advanced wireless telecommunications and broadband, while also encouraging technological innovation and experimentation.

Spectrum policy has largely developed under an assumption of scarcity, and therefore the need to ration spectrum access as means to prevent interference among users. This has resulted in a policy framework that placed state authorities in Ireland and elsewhere in the role of hands-on managers of national spectrum resources.

But, the reality is that spectrum under current management frameworks is substantially underutilized. An independent analysis of usage in the centre of Dublin (in 2007) highlights that average use across the primary spectrum bands was less than 14 percent. In addition, technological advancements in wireless communications are fundamentally changing how we can manage access to spectrum, providing for more equitable and efficient use of this public resource. "Smart" or "cognitive radio" technologies and the shift from analog to digital for various services (e.g. terrestrial TV and public safety services) provide a timely opportunity to reallocate significant blocks of spectrum for new uses and services.

The switch over to Digital Television (DTT) provides a tremendous opportunity for Ireland to re-envision its spectrum policies and reallocate valuable spectrum for advanced communication uses and technologies. The challenge for Ireland is to develop a broad-based spectrum policy that ensures all Irish citizens can access the benefits of this public communications resource.

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A Technology Driven Spectrum Policy: License-Exempt Use

Spectrum use should follow existing consumer demand and continue to evolve with the advent of ever-improving technologies. This is markedly difficult in a command-and control model (which is dependent upon policymakers to determine how and to whom spectrum should be allocated). One of the most important elements of a policy framework for spectrum use in the 21st Century is to promote flexibility and openness – ensuring that innovation and market mechanisms allow for the best, most efficient and publicly-beneficial use. A more open and equitable spectrum policy would have significant positive impacts on Ireland’s economy, telecommunications, media, and democratic processes.

License-exempt (unlicensed) use of spectrum is essential to developing a spectrum management policy to support innovation and encourage more efficient, diverse, and democratic uses of the airwaves. Unlicensed spectrum use promotes widespread access, lowers barriers to entry for new services and providers, and creates opportunities for individuals and local communities to directly benefit from spectrum resources. Increasing license-exempt spectrum use is essential to facilitating the widespread deployment of broadband access throughout Ireland.

The success of consumer Wi-Fi (802.11a/b/g) has demonstrated the capability of unlicensed spectrum to foster extensive competition in terms of services and devices, encourage rapid technological innovation and research, promote efficient use of spectrum, and allow for a dynamic and technologically service-neutral spectrum management. Wi-Fi technology is moving beyond small scale residential and business local area networks; Wi-Fi hotspots and community mesh networks can now cover entire cities and hundreds of square miles.

Open and Dynamic Use of Spectrum: “Smart Radio” Technology and Opportunistic Spectrum Reuse

Although, unlicensed, shared access has facilitated dramatic technological innovation, it has been relegated to just a few spectrum bands, due to concerns regarding interference. "Smart radio" or "cognitive radio" technology offers the potential to address the interference concerns and facilitate widespread sharing of underutilized frequencies across both unlicensed and licensed bands. This technology allows wireless devices to sense their environment or “listen before talk,” detecting occupied frequencies in a given area and only operating on currently unused frequencies. Such technology opens up large swaths of radio spectrum for unlicensed use and provides opportunities for low-power unlicensed networking devices to opportunistically share or reuse underutilized spectrum in low-use bands without interfering with pre-existing licensed users.

The advent of “smart radio” technology allows for the development of a more open and dynamic approach to managing spectrum access. One in which, spectrum can be utilized as a public resource or commons, permitting more equitable access beyond commercial service providers to include local communities and individuals, and allowing for a proliferation of communication devices and networks.

This type of dynamic and open access to spectrum allows for a completely different market structure for telecommunication networks. In traditional licenses, whether obtained via administrative assignment or market forces (i.e. auctions), the onus is on the licensee to incur substantial upfront capital costs to secure the license and build-out the network. This results in slower and more limited deployment that is reliant upon a relatively static business model for recouping the incurred costs. In addition, the licensee often controls the type of equipment used on these networks, constraining innovation and often mandating expensive proprietary hardware.

This contrasts with unlicensed or opportunistic use of spectrum where connectivity is driven by consumer-demand, not a limited number of licensees, service providers, or technology bottle-necks. Thus, dynamic use creates a broader market with lower barriers to entry, facilitating open communications infrastructures that support competition among a diverse array of equipment manufacturers, service providers, application and content providers.

Policy Recommendations

A unifying vision of Ireland's spectrum future should be at the foundation of this framework. Ireland should set a goal to develop a leadership position in spectrum innovation and research. An open and technology-driven spectrum policy would be the vehicle to achieve this goal.

1. Transparency

To determine whether current spectrum allocations should be freed up from existing uses, increase allocations for unlicensed use, and asses the potential for opportunistic spectrum reuse in specific bands, regulators must have an accurate picture of what entities are using the spectrum and how they are using it. We propose a thorough and transparent analysis of spectrum use that includes both claimed and actual use assessments.

2. Lower Barriers to Access and Innovation by Promoting Unlicensed and
Opportunistic Use

The key point here; is not just the amount of spectrum, but also the variety of allocations throughout the radio spectrum band. Wireless signals in high and low frequencies have remarkably different propagation characteristics, which are best used for different tasks and services. For example, wireless signals in the television band can penetrate walls and dense foliage, making this spectrum useful for home and business wireless networks as well as spreading broadband connectivity over long distances to isolated areas.

3. Greater Cooperation among Users, both Licensed and Unlicensed

We encourage the Minister to begin facilitating discussions with current licensed users, smart radio device manufacturers and other stakeholders to determine appropriate standards and technical requirements for unlicensed devices to operate without interfering with licensed users. The success of opening spectrum in the 5 GHz band for unlicensed wireless devices provides an early precedent for cooperation among incumbent users and new entrants. In 2003, the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) developed standards for wireless devices to share spectrum in the 5 GHz band utilized by weather and military radar. The U.S followed in 2006, bringing together the U.S. military, spectrum authorities, and device manufactures to develop technical rules to allow wireless networking devices to operate in parts of the 5 GHz band without interfering with military radar systems. Ireland should follow suit and actively pursue opening up additional spaces to more efficient uses among a variety of stakeholders.

4. Encourage Experimentation and Research

Ireland already has a strong track record of experimentation and research in spectrum and, with proper support, would become a world leader in this area. The Minister should commit to a goal of establishing Ireland as a leader in spectrum research. Blocks of spectrum in all bands should be made available for research and government funding for R&D should be targeted on research with a high potential to establish innovative technology and access solutions for the general public.

Additional Policy Recommendations

Although, unlicensed and opportunistic spectrum reuse is key to a more open and dynamic spectrum management and spurring widespread deployment of broadband throughout Ireland, it should be part of a broader pro-consumer policy framework to shape telecommunications in the 21st century. We offer the following recommendations to encourage more transparent and efficient use of spectrum resources, promote accessible and affordable access to open communication networks and support extensive competition in the wireless and telecommunications markets.

1. Open Access Networks and Infrastructure

We recommend polices that empower individual end users and limit the ability of service providers to control decisions best left to their customers. Restrictions should only be allowed when documented evidence of harm to the network would result if they were not put in place.

2. Transparency in Administrative Assignment

This form of spectrum management should be reserved for specific, clearly-defined public policy objectives such as delivering public safety services or free-to-air public service broadcasting. A key principle should be transparency of the policy objectives, spectrum needs, and use efficiencies of these assignments. Incentives should be deployed to ensure use that is as efficient as possible and actual use should be reviewed on a regular basis. This form of spectrum allocation should also be carried out in a technology-neutral manner.

3. Competitive and Publicly Beneficial Spectrum Auctions

While auctions can offer a competitive means to allow commercial users to access spectrum, they are susceptible to anti-competitive bidding behavior and outcomes. In addition, auctions tend to benefit the largest and most well-capitalized firms, leading to potential consolidation of spectrum resources and inhibiting competition. They additionally serve as a considerable barrier to citizen and community access to spectrum. We recommend several policies to provide for more competitive and publicly beneficial auctions and encourage the Minister to consider auctions as part of a broad framework for spectrum management:

- Flexible temporary licenses
- Anonymous Bidding and Spectrum Caps
- Service Build-out Requirements and Public Interest Obligations
- Wholesale Access

Taken together, the policy recommendations we propose create an innovative platform for building Ireland's next-generation telecommunications infrastructures. They help ensure more efficient and inclusive spectrum use and prevent many of the shortcomings we have witnessed in various market sectors. While some observers are fearful of the evolutions of business models and communications that new technologies mandate, a failure to embrace these innovations will only hamper Ireland's ability to compete in a modern global economy. As Ireland transitions to digital communications, we have a once-in-a-generation opportunity to modernize our thinking and incorporate 21st century technological advances into our spectrum management practices.

Read the full document.

About OTI

The New America Foundation's Open Technology Initiative (OTI) formulates policy and regulatory reforms to support open architectures and open source innovations and facilitates the development and implementation of open technologies and communications networks. OTI promotes affordable, universal, and ubiquitous communications networks through partnerships with communities, researchers, industry, and public interest groups. OTI is committed to maximizing the potentials of innovative open technologies by studying their social and economic impacts – particularly for poor, rural, and other under served constituencies. As an independent non-profit initiative, OTI provides in-depth, objective research, analysis, and findings for policy decision-makers and the general public.