Strategy - Backpage Briefing

Telecom Asia, Nov, 2002

The US' status as the global laggard in 3G is acknowledged in a recent report by the government watchdog, the General Accounting Office (GAO), aptly titled Telecommunications: Better Coordination and Enhanced Accountability Needed to Improve Spectrum Management.

Given the huge number of agencies involved, the GAO not surprisingly complains that the lack of co-ordination could harm US interests, especially with the World Radio Conference coming up next year. It notes that many agencies do not fully monitor and report on their spectrum usage, and thus the government "does not have the information necessary to assure that federal agencies are only using as much spectrum as needed". Worse, this report didn't even cover the military, which is sitting on key IMT-2000 spectrum.