Commercial Spectrum Enhancement Act (CSEA) Annual Progress Report for 2015

The National Telecommunications and Information Administration submits this report pursuant to Section 207 of the Commercial Spectrum Enhancement Act (CSEA), which requires annual reporting on federal agencies’ progress to relocate wireless communications systems from spectrum or share spectrum that has been reallocated to commercial use. This report provides details on two separate spectrum auctions conducted by the Federal Communications Commission that included: 1) the 1710 to 1755 megahertz (MHz) band, and 2) the 1695-1710 MHz and 1755-1780 MHz bands. This report covers the period from January through December 2015.

Part I of this annual report documents the cumulative progress made by federal agencies to relocate operations out of the 1710-1755 MHz band from March 2007 through December 2015. Part II of this annual report contains a new report — the report documents the agencies’ activities to accommodate commercial use of the 1695-1710 MHz and 1755-1780 MHz bands that were auctioned in 2015. Part II contains slightly different information compared to Part I due to enactment of the Middle Class Tax Relief and Job Creation Act of 2012, that, among other things, modified the SRF provisions in the NTIA Organization Act. Notably, these modifications permit federal agencies to recover costs stemming from their action to enable spectrum to be shared or relocated based on an approved transition plan, as well as permit federal agencies to recover certain pre-auction costs, neither of which was permitted prior to the 2012 Tax Relief Act. Accordingly, Part II reflects transition costs, which include both relocation and sharing costs, as well as separate timelines associated with transitioning federal spectrum use and the expenditure of SRF funds.