SPECTRUM NOW Act Introduced

U.S. Senators Roger Wicker (R-MS) and Brian Schatz (D-HI) and U.S. Representatives Doris Matsui (D-CA) and Brett Guthrie (R-KY), announced the introduction of the “Supplementing the Pipeline for Efficient Control of The Resources for Users Making New Opportunities for Wireless (SPECTRUM NOW) Act”. This bill facilitates the speedy deployment of 5G by allowing government agencies to become more efficient and effective in their spectrum use and requiring key mid-band frequencies be made available for commercial wireless use.

Specifically, The SPECTRUM NOW Act creates a pathway for agencies to modify their operations on federally-held spectrum to make those frequencies available for commercial wireless broadband use. The Act allows agencies that have already submitted plans for spectrum reallocations to access unused Spectrum Relocation Fund (SRF) funds that they currently cannot in order to study the possibility of increasing their spectrum efficiency and relocating or sharing their spectrum with commercial users. Without this fix, federal agencies that have currently identified spectrum that could be repurposed would be unable to conduct the engineering research that would result in the spectrum being made available for commercial wireless use.

Highlights of the SPECTRUM NOW Act include:

• Improves Federal agencies’ ability to study making spectrum available for commercial wireless use.
• Requires a plan be submitted to repurpose the 3450 MHz – 3550 MHz band for commercial wireless use. This band is adjacent to the Citizens Broadband Radio Service (CBRS) band, which is expected to be auctioned next year.  
• Creates a timeline for formal identification and auction of the 3450 MHz – 3550 MHz band, provided the study required by the SPECTRUM NOW Act determines it can be made available  for commercial use.
• Requires the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) to consult with the FCC and the relevant federal agency on whether spectrum subject to a plan could be made available on an unlicensed basis, if a study reveals it could not be made available for auction on a licensed basis.
• Updates an annual report by NTIA on the implementation of relocation or sharing arrangements of federal spectrum.

“Winning the race to 5G is critical to ensuring our nation’s security, economic prosperity, and closing the digital divide in rural America,” said Wicker. “We have already made considerable progress in that race. This legislation would continue that momentum by providing federal agencies the resources needed to make more spectrum available to the commercial wireless industry and other innovative industries.”

“As demand for licensed and unlicensed spectrum continues to grow, we need to find new ways to maximize our country’s spectrum resources,” said Schatz. “By freeing up more licensed spectrum, we can give innovators a strong foundation for building new technologies and help grow an industry that fuels our national economy.”

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The Regulatory Mix Today: SPECTRUM NOW Act Introduced, NIST Report On Cybersecurity and the IOT

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NIST Report On Cybersecurity and the IOT

A new National Institute of Standards and Technology publication is intended to help organizations better understand and manage the cybersecurity and privacy risks associated with individual Internet of Things (IoT) devices throughout the devices’ lifecycles.  The publication emphasizes what makes managing these risks different for IoT devices in general, including consumer, enterprise, and industrial IoT devices, as compared to conventional information technology (IT) devices.  It also provides insights to inform organizations’ risk management processes.  It provides three recommendation for addressing the cybersecurity and privacy risk mitigation challenges for IoT devices.

• Understand the IoT device risk considerations (Section 3) and the challenges they may cause to mitigating cybersecurity and privacy risks for IoT devices in the appropriate risk mitigation areas.
• Adjust organizational policies and processes to address the cybersecurity and privacy risk mitigation challenges throughout the IoT device lifecycle.
• Implement updated mitigation practices for the organization’s IoT devices as you would any other changes to practices

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The Regulatory Mix, Inteserra’s blog of telecom related regulatory activities, is a snapshot of PUC, FCC, legislative, and occasionally court issues that our regulatory monitoring team uncovers each day. Depending on their significance, some items may be the subject of an Inteserra Briefing.