In Baker, CTIA Gets a Spectrum Czar -- and at a Crucial Time

Nearly six months after launching a nationwide executive search to find a replacement for its retiring president and CEO, Steve Largent, CTIA-The Wireless Association finally has a new leader.

And it didn’t have to look too far, either. Meredith Attwell Baker, the former Republican Federal Communications Commissioner and acting administrator of the Commerce Department’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration, will take over as president and CEO of CTIA on June 2.

In Baker, CTIA is getting an influential Washington insider and lobbyist who has a deep understanding of spectrum policy -- at a time when both the FCC and the NTIA are carrying out an ambitious Obama Administration plan to double the country’s supply of airwaves for use in high-speed wireless Internet service by 2020.

In a statement accompanying the news release, Baker wasted no time in outlining three spectrum policy priorities. Specifically, she said she will “place more emphasis on technical and engineering expertise related to spectrum and wireless technologies; work with commercial and government users to produce a viable five-year plan for the future of spectrum usage; and begin to regularly assess how efficiently spectrum is being used.”