Congressman Guthrie Reintroduces SMART Spectrum Act

Congressman Brett Guthrie (R-KY) reintroduced the Simplifying Management, Access, Reallocation, and Transfer of Spectrum Act, or SMART Spectrum Act with Congresswoman Doris Matsui (D-CA) to establish a tool to improve the coordination of shared spectrum and mitigate harmful interference for commercial and federal users. Spectrum is a fixed, finite resource used for telecommunication and managed by the federal government. The federal government sets aside spectrum for public services and then auctions other spectrum frequencies to commercial users. As wireless technologies continue to develop, the federal government needs to become more efficient with the spectrum set aside for public services. The SMART Spectrum Act increases opportunities for commercial and federal users to operate underutilized spectrum licensed to the federal government by establishing an Incumbent Informing Capability system at the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA). This system would facilitate spectrum sharing between federal entities and between federal and non-federal users operating in the federal spectrum. Users can use this system to share what time, where geographically, and in which band of the electromagnetic spectrum the users are operating. This exchange of information allows federal and non-federal users to share a spectrum that is not being fully utilized by the federal government and helps mitigate harmful interference.