Wireless 2020: Spectrum Crisis or Broadband Abundance?

Internet Society
Friday, November 1, 2013
8:30 AM - 10:30 AM

As wireless data demand increases at dizzying rates, meeting that demand will necessarily require innovative policy choices that encourage innovation and investment. The outcomes of these choices will shape the future of the Internet and the economy.

The President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST)—an independent council of experts from industry and academia—concludes that the traditional practice of clearing and reallocating portions of the spectrum used by Federal agencies is not a sustainable model for spectrum policy. PCAST finds instead that the best way to increase capacity is to leverage new technologies that enable larger blocks of spectrum to be shared. One advantage of sharing is that it does not require licensed businesses and government entities to fully clear certain wavelengths already in use—a process that can be time consuming and expensive.

“The norm for spectrum use should be sharing, not exclusivity,” the new PCAST report concludes, noting that a new spectrum architecture and a corresponding shift in practices could multiply the effective capacity of the spectrum by a factor of 1,000. “Spectrum should be managed not by fragmenting it into ever more finely divided exclusive frequency assignments, but by specifying large frequency bands that can accommodate a wide variety of compatible uses.”

Panelists:
Michael Calabrese - Director of the Wireless Future Project, New America Foundation’s Open Technology Institute.
Charla Rath - Vice President, Wireless Policy Development, Verizon
Preston F. Marshall, Ph.D. - Spectrum Access Technology, Google

Moderator:
Afzal Bari, Senior Technology and Telecommunications Analyst, Bloomberg Government

With introductory remarks by:
Michael Nelson - Principal Technology Policy Strategist, Microsoft
Paula Boyd - Director, Government and Regulatory Affairs, Microsoft Schedule

8:30 – 9:00 Networking and breakfast

9:00 - 9:45 Opening remarks and presentations by panelists

9:45 – 10:30 Q & A

Live webcast viewable at http://www.isoc-dc.org/isoc-dc-tv/

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https://spectrum-policy.eventbrite.com/