Commerce Taps Hatfield As Spectrum Advisory Committee Chairman

Telecom Policy Report, Dec 18, 2006

The U.S. Department of Commerce (DoC) has named a chairman for a new RF committee formed to provide the Bush administration with advice and recommendations regarding new wireless technologies and how they relate to homeland security, national defense and other critical government needs (TelecomWeb news break, Dec. 13).

Dr. Dale Hatfield, an independent consultant and adjunct professor in the University of Colorado's "interdisciplinary telecommunications program" will head the new Spectrum Advisory Committee that is expected to work closely with John M.R. Kneuer, whom the U.S. Senate recently confirmed as the DoC's assistant secretary for communications and information and head of the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA).

Kneuer, who oversees the Advisory Committee and who is the principal White House adviser on telecom and information policy issues, says he appointed Hatfield at the panel's first meeting at DoC headquarters in Washington, D.C., last Thursday. With two-year terms, the other members come from Motorola; ArrayComm; the Enterprise Wireless Alliance; Sprint Nextel; Mobile Satellite Ventures; the Association of Public-Safety Communications Officials International; Intel; Legg Strategies; the Center for Strategic & International Studies; Shared Spectrum; Cantor Fitzgerald; Freedom Technologies; Cisco Systems; Clearwire; CoCo Communications; Lockheed Martin; and Wilkinson, Barker, Knauer LLP.

The committee members - named by Secretary of Commerce Carlos M. Gutierrez - have the overall task of addressing how the use of the RF spectrum could be better managed. Formed last month (TelecomWeb news break, Nov. 3), the group's establishment is part of the Administration's Spectrum Policy Initiative established in June 2003 to further develop and implement a U.S. spectrum policy for the 21st century that meets the country's needs and that spurs economic growth.

Automatic Identification

In another spectrum matter involving the NTIA, the agency told the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) that the regulator's plan to designate very high frequency (VHF) maritime Channels 87B (161.975 MHz) and 88B (162.025 MHz) for so-called "automatic identification systems" (AIS) in the United States is an essential tool and is in the national interest to provide vessel information critical to maritime safety and homeland security.

The AIS allocation is germane to a number of post-9/11 attack responses, including the Maritime Transportation Security Act of 2002 that authorized the U.S. Coast Guard to implement a system to collect, integrate and analyze information concerning vessels operating on or bound for waters subject to the jurisdiction of the United States as well as various presidential-level maritime plans on defense spectrum use, domain awareness surveillance, reconnaissance and security capabilities.

In a 57-page reply to a FCC mid-2006 Further Notice of Proposed Rule Making (FNPRM), NTIA in concert with the U.S. Coast Guard in particular advocated a nationwide allocation of Channel 87B for exclusive AIS use to provide the necessary nationwide coverage. An alternative posited by the FCC would be to use the technology only in nine designated maritime VHF Public Coast Service Areas (VPCSAs) but those regions still exclude an area in the United States roughly equivalent to the Mountain Time Zone, according to the NTIA.

"There are compelling safety and national security reasons to designate Channel 87B for AIS on a nationwide basis," the NTIA says, pointing out that the FCC already has found that AIS is both an important tool for combating terrorism and a major enhancement in maritime navigation technology to support maritime safety. "An exclusive nationwide allocation would allow the more efficient satellite detection of AIS signals, a method which is necessary to extend the coverage of AIS. In addition, an exclusive allocation will ensure that co- channel, non-AIS signals will not interfere with the transmission or reception of AIS signals."

NTIA also maintains that AIS base stations be authorized for federal use only, and it suggests the FCC quickly adopt certification standards for transmitters by incorporating applicable International Electrotechnical Commission specs. The Coast Guard will be working under contract with the commercial global data satellite communications company Orbcomm regarding the satellite detection of AIS signals.

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