Global alignment on spectrum policy is crucial for US leadership in telecommunications. However, the Biden administration’s approach at the yearly World Radiocommunication Conference suggests that its leadership position may be fading while other superpowers attempt to carve out their own rules of the game on telecommunications policy.
Join AEI for a panel discussion addressing the decisions from this treaty-level conference that shape policy directions across the US government and affect American tech leadership.
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Good afternoon everybody Welcome to the American Enterprise Institute thank you for joining us today where we are going to talk about the world radio communications conference that just happened last year my first guest today is Steve Lang he is the Deputy assistant secretary for international information and communication policy in the Bureau
Of cyberspace and digital policy does that all fit on one card yes it does he has held this post since November of 2022 he was also the lead uh for the US delegation for the world radio conference so that is the main reason why he’s here today but listening
To his bio you can realize he could probably talk about anything previously Steve served as the minister counselor for economic Affairs at the US Embassy in Tokyo from titles you got it down and is the director of both the office of multilateral Affairs and the office of bilateral Regional affairs from 2013 to
2015 Steve is a political counselor at the US Embassy in Mexico City prior to that he served as the deputy director of The Office of Chinese Mongolian Affairs the Department of State and as a senior analyst in the US trade Representatives Office on Japan Korea and the Apec
Affairs prior uh prior tours included US Consulate General in guano China and the American Institute in Taiwan and taipe the Bureau of western hemispheres and the US Embassy in Bangkok and the US interest sections in Havana Cuba before joining State Steve worked as the e um
In the as an economist in the Department of Labor and The Graduate he was a graduate of George Shan University so you have covered both the Southern and Northern Hemisphere you’ve got it pretty down no yeah mostly Northern Hemisphere actually but mostly Latin America and Asia yeah fabulous all right so let’s
Just start with the some Basics I know um Telecom Geeks care about this a lot but every four years there is a world radio communications conference what is the goal of that so the the world radio communication conference is held under the offices of the international telecommunication Union or itu and the
Goal of the conference is to harmonize radio frequency spectrum allocations around the world systems and they also do the work that allows satellites to operate globally and communicate with each other and and with those of us on the ground so when you look at something like the maritime system or Aviation
That is where the harmonization comes into this and that is agreed to by governments not just the industry yes so governments come together at the the WRC and it is uh a treaty level conference so uh we negotiate the radio regulations which decide which bands will be used
For which purposes and that is what um ensures that those those systems can operate internationally um and at the same time uh it’s important because those allocations also create uh economies of scale for manufacturers who producing that equipment and so it it drives billions of dollars in of investment and
There’s very large industry uh interest in the in the event and we actually had a delegation of just about 200 people for the United States and about half of those were private sector advisers wow that’s fantastic that’s that’s always good to have so kind of explain how that
Works because I I have some familiarity with it but for the audience I mean what do these 200 people do and are they all there to help you they are all there to help move our delegation forward and Advance our priorities so there are there are multiple meetings taking place
All the time and it’s uh US government officials who are speaking for the United States and sitting in the chair in the meeting meetings but there are uh private sector advisers who are with them all the time and Advising them and participate in many of the Preparatory meetings and the process that develops
Our positions as we head into the conference so how do the decisions that are made in this conference um how are they implemented once you leave like so you have these discussions they’re forward looking you’re looking at where you’re going to be making decisions about Spectrum specifically um you know
In different areas so you basically put to bed what was done in the last fouryear conference and then you start looking forward and then as soon as you leave the conference you just start with those goals and then go home and figure it out so each conference s the agenda
For the next conference so at this conference we identified agenda items for WRC 27 and the work on that actually began immediately after the the conference ended so uh I got to go home after WRC 23 ended but some of my colleagues had to stay for a few extra
Days to Begin work on the Preparatory process for the next conference and to to divvy up the work for those new agenda items so what were some of the big impact items well um maybe I can tell you a little bit about what the US Topline priorities were for the conference uh we
Went in with broadly three buckets of priorities uh first of all we wanted to uh do work that would expand connectivity and drive Innovation uh we wanted to unlock the space economy and for the next generation of Space Science and we also wanted to at the same time make sure that we were
Protecting our National Defense interests and preserving Aviation and Maritime safety uh Spectrum as well um under that first category of of innovation and connectivity uh we wanted to harmonize Spectrum available for 5G especially in our region of the Americas uh the itu divides the world into three
Different regions and uh North and South America sit in Region 2 um so so in in that uh category we were able to um uh ensure alloc identifications uh for international mobile telecommunications which is basically uh 5G or um Advanced Wireless Systems uh in the 3.3 to 3.4
GHz band and the 3.6 to 3.8 GHz band and for Region 2 that created 500 contiguous megahertz of of spectrum for 5G which really creates that those economies of scale that can can drive investment for manufacturers but also gives governments the flexibility to choose where they want to um allocate Spectrum for 5G
Within within that band depending on their own particular National situations um at the same time uh because uh some of that band is used for radio location systems that are important to National Defense um we were able to ensure that um in the 3.3 to 3.4 GHz band those radio locations Services
Have what we call a super primary status um and we added a footnote to the radio regulations which ensures that new IMT Services won’t cause interference for and they won’t um claim protection for interference from those those um radio location service as well to help make sure that we are defending our our
National security interests at the same time as we’re identifying the Spectrum for for 5G um but also um we were looking forward to the future and we wanted to make sure there was a future Enda item that would help lead the way to a pipeline for 6G Services as well um
In addition to that it’s not just these 5G and 6G uh licensed services that are important to connectivity for the United States unlicensed services like Wi-Fi are also a high priority so one of one of our uh top objectives was to make sure that the 6 GHz band remains
Available for for Wi-Fi and other unlicensed services and there um we we had some some good successes we were able to ensure uh no change uh for the radio regulations for our region of Region 2 uh which will allow us to continue to to use Wi-Fi in that that
Band here um in Region 3 uh there was uh the top 100 megahertz of that band was allocated for IMT but the rest of the band was not and notably uh China tried to add its name to a footnote that would have uh created an IMT allocation for
The rest of the band in China uh but was was not able to do that at this conference um region one which is Europe Africa the Middle East and uh the countries of the former s Union uh that region uh did go with an IMT allocation for the 6.42 to
7.125 gigahertz band uh but notably uh in a footnote it was um made clear that uh the band would also be available for other mobile services uh including radio uh local area networks like Wi-Fi so um across the board we feel like uh we had good
Results on that 6 gigz ban I always feel like one of the challenges talking about spectrum is you can’t see it and it’s so cool and it does all this amazing stuff so in my head I compare it to um the ostr are really big on on asset
Recycling so I think about it like do we still need this gigantic you know uh car garage over here when we don’t have as many people coming in to work maybe we can use that better and so that’s literally in my head how I have to think
About these things I can’t see what we’re talking about and I feel like that’s a little bit of what we’ve been up to where you’re saying okay when we did this when we dealt with unpacking back with uh t or uh um uh M media so trying to talk everyone else into going
In the same way forward especially uh for I just came back from the consumer electronic show a week ago and so you have the you know like I was in the Samsung booth and I was talking to the other companies and and they were you know excited about some of the things
That came out of this because it means they now can you know put their plans going forward but where are the areas where we have we don’t have agreement because that seems like that’s a real challenge for the people that are the manufacturers as well as maybe some of
The new technologies that we’d like to see move forward and there’s others that are not as interested in it as we are yeah I think well there are lots of areas of of disagreement and some of them are on very technical aspects but I I think broadly speaking I would say one
Area where there are are different views and different priorities is this question of licensed versus unlicensed services and in the United States we have made um Spectrum availability for unlic services like Wi-Fi a priority um us industry and US developers are very strong in in creating uh W Wi-Fi and
Other unlicensed service applications um at the same time we do want to prioritize though domestically as well make making sure that we have a spectrum available for for licensed services but I think um other countries have not uh prioritize the unlicensed piece of that as much as we have um another area where
We saw some conflict was um in in Satellite issues uh we have made it a priority to uh create uh the environment that will enable new non-geostationary orbit systems or low earth orbit systems like um starlink or Amazon kypers uh system that will provide uh Internet connect Broadband connectivity
Especially for remote areas uh with low latency and um we saw a lot of resistance and in fact I would even say an unfortunate bias against these ngso systems and some of the proposals that we had um across different issues in the conference that were were related to
Ngso systems um so that was that was another area where you see different sets of priorities that I think is worth highlighting what creates the is it just a path forward is they’re on a different way that they want to manage their um design of equipment or they just don’t
See the need for the same Spectrum band you know well I think all the countries that are there are trying to advance uh their own uh economic interests and and their the interest of their Industries they’re trying to advance their technological leadership they’re trying to advance their their National Security
Interests as well so some countries may have a particular strength in in one industry or another I think uh as I mentioned before the US has um uh we’re we’re we’re leading in in many in many ways the in the development of these ngso systems um and are doing very well
In in developing unlicensed uh or or technologies that that rely on unlicensed Spectrum applications uh but then you have um as well you have other interests um for instance uh with regard to ngso systems some countries work concerned about the impact that large Mega constellations could have on radio astronomy um or they
Were concerned about the future availability of orbital or Spectrum resources for for systems that um that we’re not thinking of yet so um there there are different reasons why um there might be different points of view um depending on where where we’re competitive or um what what um what
We’re prioritizing so China had a different perspective on six gig than we did what was is the issue there with six gig um well with six gigz China had a proposal for it to be studied for an IMT allocation uh at the for the WRC 27 um and uh Chinese Industries Chinese
Companies including huawe have um bet heavily on investment in development of equipment that uses that Spectrum um they are are not as interested in prioritizing development of unlicensed Spectrum as we are so so there was a strong interest from them in harmonizing the world around 6 gigz for for future
Six G six generation 6G technology and for for IMT um but we were happy that we were able to make progress and preserving that band of spectrum and and to to try to make sure that it’s harmonized for unlicensed uses and so does that interfere with what we want to
Do on Wi-Fi or is that just we’re taking different paths yeah it’s different paths and we’re going to have to to continue to watch it and continue try to do what we can to make sure that that’s um as harmonized as possible globally for unlicensed Services the way that
That we would like to align it um but it’s but it’s going to be an issue that’s we’ll have to continue to watch and continue to work on so um looking ahead in four years what spectrum bands or services do you think we will be
Looking at at that point I mean are we it seems like we just keep finding a new frontier which I think is amazing yeah yeah well I think there there will be new techn Oles that we’re not thinking of yet um you know what I think I can
Say is that we’re going to see the same things that we saw at this conference but more of it um there’s going to be interest in Spectrum for 6 GHz but it’s just going to be harder and harder to find that Spectrum um because it’s a finite resources and uh there are so
Many applications competing for it uh we’re going to see I think a lot more satellite related issues as we have uh more and more applications and more and more uh constellations going up and those issues are going to get uh continue to get more challenging so um
Uh it’s like I said I think it’s going to be this one thing we’re going to see is the same issues we saw now just but just more challenging and um more competition for limited Spectrum so um as I mentioned the process has already begun to prepare for the next conference
We’re working on it hard within the US government we’ve already had um our first discussions about how we’re going to coordinate this process and we’re going to have to make sure that we are engaging around the world to listen to the priorities of our partners and competitors and to try to convince them
To align with the priorities that that we’ve set for ourselves so I ran into a colleague the other day and she was talking about lunar she was very excited what is I tell her I didn’t know what she was talking about yeah you know and I didn’t really me I mentioned that one
Of our bucket of issues was um Space Science and Space economy um but didn’t talk about some of the the achievements that we had there which I think are super cool um my favorite topic of the conference was our uh future agenda item proposal so for the next conference in 20
20127 uh one of the topics will be Communications on the moon and we’ll be looking at making sure that there’s Spectrum available and the regulatory framework for how that Spectrum will be used for long-term human and robotic presence on the moon so I think that’s
Super cool um we also had a proposal on Space weather which is very important um and then we had uh the many different satellite issues that we worked on we had a new new allocations for both gso and ngso systems in the six 17 gigahertz
Band um and we we did make some progress on regulatory Frameworks to allow those systems to coexist and we had a have a commitment as well to do additional technical studies uh to to look at the framework for how they can coexist um in the future as well so um there’ll be a
Lot more work on that front but um space science the space economy is uh a really critical uh topic for for the conference and one where we had some good successes of this one I know a lot of people are obsessed with talking about the weather
But now I have to add space weather to that what do you mean space weather what does that mean well I I’m not the best person I’m I’m a diplomat I’m not a uh agree that it’s raining on Mars and like you know like everybody’s got to watch what’s going
On and radiation from the Sun and uh those kinds of things that can interfere with satellite operations and can affect um uh man space flight and other space um space flight operations uh and yes so we’re going to uh study how our satellites uh our satellite systems can
Monitor space weather and make sure that we’re prepared to deal with it and then we share that information it’s not going to be like apps where you know well um the conference was talking about the spectrum that we use to monitor space weather so how what we do with that
Spectrum is is something you’re going to have to to ask somebody else I’m always fascinated the Noah app asked me if it’s raining right now and I’m like you’re Noah should you know if it’s raining right now it’s fascinating and then so going back to the very beginning of that
Question so deciding how we’re going to communicate information off the Moon is that what lunar well it’s preparing um for a long-term presence there so as um programs like uh the Artemis program that the United States government is pursuing with Partners around the world um as we plan for additional man space
Flight man exploration of the Moon um we want to make sure that they can use the telecommunication systems that we rely on here on Earth um and want to make sure that um if there are uh multiple entities trying to use spectrum and the Moon that they are coordinated and
Harmonized um and that we have a system in place to do that so that’s the plan we’re going to study that and make sure that we can come up with that framework at the next conference so coming back here to Earth um so after you finished this whole discussion and as you said
You got to come home a lot of people had to stick around and do the finishing work how does how did it how was it received back here people pretty happy with the response on things or um yes I would say they have been very happy um
We are happy with the results we feel like across these priorities that we we set for ourselves we we achieved progress um the way things came out were not always exactly as we envisioned it was a negotiation um so there was some give and take but in each of the areas
That we prioritized we we did see progress and um I think uh most of our our industry stakeholders uh feel like they got things that they needed out of the conference our government stakeholders felt like their interests were were protected um there are as I mentioned a lot of areas where we’re
Going to have to remain Vigilant and watch how the agenda develops the studies are undertaken for the next conference but um we were very happy with the outcome so give give us a flavor of what it’s like to negotiate again well not against but you’re in the
Room and there’s some discussion with we like we’d hear that France and Iran and China were together on something that would just immediately make me a little suspicious like I would just be like what are yall up to over there in the corner and do I want to be in that corner with
You um well we do uh we have like-minded partners that we worked with very closely and in general in general our interests were very aligned of the WRC um we do have competitors and adversaries that we have differences with and and sometimes those came out in our negotiations and we were
On opposite sides of the table um I will note that sometimes uh it’s it’s not always as you might expect um some of our competitors and adversaries are interested in protecting the same uh Spectrum used for defense applications that we’re using um so it’s not always
Cut and dry um but uh uh in in general we work closely with our like-minded partners um to achieve shared objectives um I will just also note that um this is I think that this is important not just because we want to preserve our economic competitiveness and our technological
Leadership because it’s important to our economic prosperity and our national security but also because uh leadership in these areas of Technology also uh will have an impact on how these Technologies are used and we want to make sure that uh the US maintains leadership along with our like-minded
Allies so that these Technologies are used with a a rights respecting approach that is aligned with our Democratic Values so um in addition to the huge economic and and security impacts of the conference I think it’s important to advancing our Democratic interests as well so the security is an interesting
Point uh because I realize we we always have the struggle here there’s certain things when somebody brings up security or Department of Defense you just have to get okay I believe you can’t really go as far I don’t have have clearance so I I can’t really talk about that how do
You have those discussions at that stage are they just things that are tabled and not brought up there or they just have certain groups that are able to discuss that because security is obviously a big part of um what is a selling point for 5G in the way that we design Next
Generation networking so is that something that you’re able to talk about out loud is that a how does that go down well some of our our positions in the end are determined by the US government and some of the final deliberations are undertaken in a USG only environment um
Without our our private sector advisers in the room um and uh we we we do have to take in some important uh Department of Defense and National Security interests as as we make those decisions about our positions um we had uh uh a large Department of Defense component to
Our delegation as well and and consulted regularly throughout the process um so uh it was it was an ongoing process that began uh that has that that continues throughout the cycle that Department of Defense will will participate in our preparations up until the next conference um and I’ll note that I mean
It really is uh it’s it’s it’s often a challenging Balancing Act to make sure that we’re protecting all of our interests across the board um and it’s it’s hard too because there are uh we want to make sure that our military has the the spectrum that they need for
Their operations but uh it’s also important to our national security to make sure that we maintain our our technical leadership that that the private sector is often driving so um they’re hard questions to to resolve sometimes W all right we have a couple minutes for questions do I have a mic
Runner Kate you got okay be thinking here for 15 seconds all right who has questions who wants to be first do we answer them all already really you guys are so polite I’ll ask question okay this is a question can you wait for the mic here and do you mind
Introducing yourself my name is Joe Freeman and I’m merely a user I don’t have any relationship to the industry this is a dumb question I wasn’t going to ask but you’re a little short on questions please explain what you mean by 5G and 6G I keep hearing exfinity advertising
10g and I find myself saying are they implying that they are that much Advanced over everyone else or are does it mean something else uh well I it’s a good question uh because we do throw around these abbreviations and and acronyms all the time um 5G is the latest generation the
GS for generation of your your cell phone service um that is is being rolled out that has been largely rolled out in the United States and is being rolled out around the world um 6G is is the next Generation that we’re expecting uh I think around 2030 to begin to roll out
So we are identifying the frequencies now for for 6G um I I suspect the xinity ad may may be referring to the gigabytes um instead of the generation it it gets a little bit confusing because we were talking also about the 6 gigahertz band which um we’re protecting for other uses besides
6G um but uh for this conversation 6G is is that next generation of cell phone service so can we’ll take it we’ll take it back a couple generations and it’ll give you some context to it so if you travel places that don’t have the same level of um you cellular
Telecommunications that we have here you’ll very quickly realize the apps on your phone won’t work because the there’s just it the capability like I was in Vietnam I was went from qual andur which was really excited they were on 4G which is pretty much what we are
Leaving now and going towards 5G and things worked pretty much the same and then I left quimper went to Vietnam and my phone basically became pretty dumb pretty fast and the other thing was you forget that you know you’re used to using the hop onto Wi-Fi and so you
Would be in the hotel and You’ think you would leave there and use your map system to go somewhere and as soon as you walk out the door your Maps don’t work on your phone anymore and it’s just you’ve gotten so used to the ubiquitous information flow that we have off our
Devices those generational uh it’s just a decision sometimes by and this is why the world radio conference is so interesting is a lot of them are not at the same location and speed and ability that we are in our systems here so those are when you think about of 3G and 4G
3g’s you know was really just sort of the Advent of a smarter phone and then we went to 4G which allowed us to have this this whole app economy that we’re working on we’re currently in 5G and it is 100% confusing that we use 6G in different ways in the same paragraph
Apologize for that and 10 I do think is a lovely advertising employee to tell us they’re fast thank you yep okay other questions over here he thank you so much um we heard a introduce yourself yes Jeff wesing American action Forum uh we heard a lot leading into the conference that
You know we don’t really have our chit together on uh Spectrum issues in the US leading technical term that is a technical term term of art actually um but that we just needed to get like our uh auction Authority re uh renewed so that you would be able to go on the
Conference did you find that that was actually the case obviously we didn’t get the um Authority passed before you went and and negotiated was that an did that impact that you at all or were you able to do what you wanted to do regardless I we were able to do what we
Needed to do um I I I I don’t think I have a comment um as a state department employee on on the auction Authority question um I will say that uh we released the United States government released the national Spectrum strategy shortly before the conference and that
Was helpful to us and it was helpful to us in finalizing some of our final positions uh like our proposal for a future agenda item on IMT identifications for consideration in the next conference and I think also uh just to to um set the stage for for us plans
For the future Spectrum so I think that that was a helpful step last question all right n introduce yourself yes uh Nathan lemur fix gear strategies I am curious about going back to what you talked about earlier the actual experience of being in Dubai and like
The fact is that you’re you know you’re based here you’re how many hours ahead you know there’s it’s several weeks long what is like would I Envision the Star Wars you know Senate looked like like how does that work I just kind of curious kind if you could talk a bit
More about what that experience back and forth was um sure so I there it was is at a conference um a conference facility in Dubai and there were multiple rooms ranging in size from the the full plenary where we could fit uh large delegations pretty much everybody there
In in one room to to smaller me much smaller meeting rooms and there was a schedule each day um the the conference I I guess I can explain the conference is divided into seven seven different committees uh that that meet regularly and move their products up through uh to
The plenary session which which gives them final approval and the committee has um working groups and they sub-working groups and so it’s a process of moving these documents up through through that that chain um they’re really three substantive committees that are are moving the the proposals um and
Then um uh there’s a budget committee and there’s a a translation committee or editorial committee and uh so we are are tracking our proposals as they get introduced in the committee and then assigned to working groups and we’re making sure that we have people in each of these groups and we’re watching as
They they move from a drafting group to a sub to a sub-working group to a working group to uh to the committee and then they get moved up to the plenary and we’re we’re trying to track them as they they go along we’re trying to make
Sure that we have the right people in each of those meetings each day um we would have uh on most days we would have either a full delegation meeting first thing in the morning or usually more often we’d have a smaller delegation meeting um often just the Core US
Government delegation meeting to plan the day and figure out what we needed to keep an eye on um and uh the first week of the conference we have a lot of highlevel visitors who are there um there are more receptions and things like that um documents are introduced
But not a lot of the work is being done people are trying to figure out what others positions are the second week things begin to heat up and you start to see things begin to move uh but not many decisions are made and then the third
Week uh some of the easier stuff starts to to get approved and to to come off the agenda but really A lot of the tough issues don’t get resolved until that last week and then there’s there’s more of a scramble um there were several days
In a row of of meetings last until 3 in the morning um the last few few nights uh and then uh you get the last few things done and uh the last day is is just signing documents and making sure that all the eyes are dotted and T’s are crossed do
They hold the hard questions to the end because you can’t get people to resolve them until they’re exhausted or yeah I mean basically uh that’s part of it but it’s also because people hold back on on what they know the other negotiators want uh until uh they know they think
They can they’re going to get the maximum that they can so everybody’s holding back on what is important to everybody else until until we can come up with uh a bigger deal fantastic Steve thank you for joining us for this part of the show um it’s just we’re going to
Need a couple minutes to set up for the panel so just give us a few minutes for those of you who are watching online those in the room get a get grab some coffee Steve thank you so much I really appreciate you being here today it’s great [Applause] thanks
It’s one of these things that was really kind of a personal curiosity I was like what thank you Nathan for asking the question was I’m like what do they do for 3 weeks and then you talk to people and you’d find out more and more of what
Was going on so let me just quickly introduce everybody Sor get my stuff there um sorry I’m going to go out of order because these are just an order that are in here Michael O’Reilly oh we actually you are on the end um Mike O’Reilly is a former commissioner from
The Federal Communications Commission from 2013 to 2020 Mike is a member of appco international advisory Council and a principal at moo Riley Consulting as a he’s also a visiting fellow at the Hudson Institute for the center of Economics of the internet and a senior fellow at the media Institute
He is a leading subject matter expert on policies related to technology telecommunications and Communications before being unanimously confirmed by the FCC Mike held a variety of leading staff positions during 20 years on Capitol Hill in both the US Senate and House of Representatives ending in a as
A policy adviser in the office of Senate Republican whip then led by US senator John cornin he previously worked for the Republican policy Committee in the US Senate and was a a policy analyst for banking tele technology Transportation trade and commerce issues from 2009 to 2010 prior to this commissioner O’Reilly
Worked in the office of Senator John sununu as a legislative director and as a senior Legislative Assistant before his tenure as a senate staffer he served on the professional staff of the committee on Energy and Commerce in the United States House of Representatives from 1998 to 2003 as a telecommunications policy analyst from
1995 to 1998 he began his career with us Congressman Tom blyly God Rest his soul we just lost last year Year from 1994 to 1995 so welcome Mike uh sorry going out of order here Evelyn Evelyn rali is a partner at uh the law firm Wilkinson Barker nower
Where she spearheads an effort on broadband funding and cyber security inspector management Evelyn most recently served as the acting assistant Secretary of the secretary uh of asting acting assistant Secretary of Commerce and Communications and information and acting administrator of the national telecommunications and Information Administration
At ntia Evelyn read uh led a team of experts providing senior policy guidance to the Secretary of Commerce in the White House on Government priorities including Broadband funding to close the digital divide supply chain risk management privacy flee free flow of information encryption spectrum and The Internet of Things prior to her work
With the federal government she led a cyber security and internet policy team at Booze Allen Hamilton in mlan Virginia Evelyn also worked as a leading internet service provider in the internet privacy and security fed edal practice and spent time deploying internet across communities throughout her work in
Public libraries thank you for that I love my library umir Javid joined CTI the wireless industry Association as the senior vice president for spectrum policy to shape and coordinate the organization Spectrum advocacy um comes to CTI from the Federal Communications Commission where he was Chief counsel in
The office of chairwoman uh Rose U Jessica Rosen Morel and played a central role in shaping our nation Spectrum policy as he helped Focus the agency on identifying midband Spectrum for 5G he also oversaw one of the most successful auctions in the US history and launched the FCC spectrum coordination initiative
To enhance partnership between agencies and the private sector prior to the FCC um was an attorney at Wy Ry from 2010 to 2017 Kate ‘ Conor is the chief counsel for the subcommittee on Communications and Technology with the US House of Representatives committee on Energy and Commerce Kate previously served as the
Chief of staff for the national telecommunications and Information Administration or ntia where she served on legislative and communication policy focused on spectrum and Broadband issues including the office of congressional Affairs where she engaged with Congress state government officials and other federal agencies to advance the administratives legislative initiative
On broadband in 5G prior to joining ntia uh Kate worked on the United States Senate in the office of Senator Mark Kirk and Senator Dan Sullivan where she handled issues before the committee on Commerce science and transportation including the Telecommunications subcommittee and Tracy I just wrote your name down bu
Bu B all right sorry that’s I’m gonna by the time I’ll say eight8 million times I’ll get it uh joined NT ncta recently as the um legal team and vice president and associate in general counsel last March where priorly she was at am meta and served as associate General counsil
And tele Telecommunications and Regulatory Affairs in this position she worked on network infrastructure and connectivity teams to navigate domestic and international telecommunications competition data protection privacy law regulating concerns of terrestrial and submarine cable networks new terrestrial and non-terrestrial connectivity Solutions metaverse ready networks and network generation Ott Services before
Joining meta uh she was a senior councel at ring central where she led the US on International Regulatory and legal matters concerning uh VoIP Services previous to that she was an associate at Harris Wilshire and granis and a law clerk at for The Honorable Curtis V Gomez in the United States District
Court of the Virgin Islands so we have quite a team here I think we could pretty much solve any problem I want you all to be like you know on my next time I play telephone telecommunications trivia so um thank you for coming here to talk about what happened at work um
Since we started and had some fun talking to the um our previous speaker about satellites I’m going to start with satellites for 100 Mike um with the new low earth orbit satellite networks expanding and uh there’s a lot of interesting debate that has been happening that at work that I
Didn’t realize that they needed to update 25-year-old uh rules of the road as they called them uh for using C certain frequencies so can you walk us through as we’re expanding into space what is it that we need on the Spectrum uh pip through the Spectrum pipeline for
Space and how are we managing that because it’s something that’s relatively new and we haven’t really thought about it in the Spectrum space prior to this well thanks for having me and thanks for reading my entire bio you forgot I started excited to see I started as a grocery store produce
Clerk but uh no it’s uh so satellite was probably and I think Ambassador Lang referenced it but it’s probably the I would say the second most important issue that was talked about or the most controversial issue overall that was brought to to WRC and it didn’t need to
Be because what it was seeking and what you referenced is the fact that our I’ll call them power levels epfd our power levels for how our our Leo satellites um operate in same bands or similar interference issues with our GEOS and I love the GEOS for those that that are
Out there and and supportive and and Opera in that space that’s great the the reference is that the the power limits are 25 years old and Leo’s built for a different Leo system long ago when my career referenced I was there um and and now the world has changed we have new
Leos that are coming on board we have operational Leos and they’re really exciting what they’re able to bring to Consumers and so the question that was presented to WRC is shouldn’t we change the power limits um that that are that brought forward and and the the
Resolution uh was a good outcome I think relatively um to lead to technical um review um that will examine this particular issue um and and determine what should be accept or what can be how far we can go on power limits so we can make sure that GEOS are fully protected
But we can get the maximum we can out of Leos and that’s a good outcome overall and then we’ll see where those those studies go I suspect um someone who’s operating the space for for a long time no pun intended is that the limits um usually are very conservative and then
As things develop as experience goes we can we can change those and I I Envision that those technical studies will be positive in the end we’ll eventually be able to to move the move the boundaries so for those who are just getting into this game will you please explain what a
Leo and a goo is sure they’re really just a it’s really what what level or how far away from the Earth are you operating Leos is a low low earth Middle Earth for for for mios and GEOS is is geoc secret they’re on the top and it’s
Really how far away from the Earth are you and how many um how many satellites do you need to cover the uh to cover operations so GEOS need quite a quite a number fewer than uh Leo which has you know can operate into the thousands depending on on the uh the business plan
Of the operator and how did they felt like they fared through this did they get what they wanted going into the world radio conference well the satellite industry is is unique they are very um entrenched and very involved in WRC and have been for an awful long time um the Geo
Certainly have been operating they operate globally and so they have great uh a great relationship so I think overall people are happy where things ended um and then we’ll see how those technical studies result in terms of the power limits you know obviously we’re going to have some
Tension between different parts of the Satellite Industries and with satellites and others that’s natural um to be had on Spectrum issues but I think overall things are trending in the right direction and those technical studies will will prove out to be positive so umir from the US perspective
What were the key Spectrum band services that were prioritized going into WRC 23 and do you feel like we were successful in furthering those priorities sure is it on I think is try again they should there we go is that better okay uh well thanks Shane uh and
It’s it’s great to be here um you know before I was at CTI I was at the FCC as you mentioned uh and and I helped with the US government’s preparation for the world radio communication conference uh and since joining CTI I went to Dubai for the first part of the conference I
Was in in the lucky position of having seen this develop in in uh from both places and in both places I grounded my work in this idea that we’re better off when more people are connected uh I believe that when I was at the FCC uh
For the country I believe that for the industry now that I’m CTI that we’re better off when more people are connected uh and and that’s what I saw in Dubai uh and you know D Lang did an amazing job this uh right before our panel talking about the US positions and
Going in and how they fared so I’m going to focus a little bit on the second half of that equation which is what was happening in the rest of the world what were the trends what were the positions that they were bringing into the conference uh and and why were they
Important and what did it mean for the United States and what I saw in Dubai uh where where over 160 countries had gathered was that for many of these countries reliable Internet and mobile connections are still a challenge if you look at the itu data Internet penetration has reached 95% of
Population coverage in only 13 countries worldwide uh if you uh and not surprisingly a lot of the Gap in many of these countries is in Rural and remote areas if you zoom in to Africa for example 4G coverage in urban areas is about four times what it is in
Rural and remote remote areas that’s a problem we know a lot about here in the United States uh and and this is important because a lot of countries came to this conference with an agenda they wanted to use this conference to make progress in closing the digital
Divides in their borders and they knew that to do that that they would have to make more Spectrum available to support mobile and they knew that in order to get the most bang for their buck that they would have to support harmonized spectrum they would have to support full
Power midband spectrum that could support wide area deployments and start to chip away at the digital divides that they’re still struggling with in their countries and so a lot of countries came to this conference looking for outcomes I think this is important because so much of what happened at the
Conference and what happened with the US positions can be explained by the simple idea that the United States did not have an answer for these countries about where they should go to find that Spectrum but other countries did and that Dynamic I think has consequences not just for our Global competitiveness
But also for our national security and so when we talk about sort of how did the US fair at this conference I think we look at the positions that the US went in with and sort of the outcomes that we came out with at the conference traditionally the United
States has really benefited from leading Global discussions about Spectrum policy right we we do the work uh on our side to to have a positive agenda of what we want Spectrum policy to look like for ourselves and for the countries that follow us we spend the weeks leading up
To the conference really Shoring up diplomatic relationships with our regions and with the rest of the world and then we go to the conference and we seek to get alignment around that view this time around domestic disputes about Spectrum policy about how we should use Spectrum at home
Really sideline the United States in conversations at the world radio communication conference about what the world should be doing with Spectrum uh and and that meant that the United States wasn’t as forceful in these conversations that it has been in the past and I think there were two big
Consequences that that flowed from that with respect to the Spectrum bands uh the first being that the United States came out of the contra I came out of that conference falling further behind on midband Spectrum we went into the conference uh already trailing our economic peers and our Rivals right most
Countries had made about have access to about 44% more midband Spectrum than the United States they left that conference with an opportunity for at least 600 700 megahertz more midband Spectrum uh and and meanwhile the US does not really have a plan for for replacement Spectrum the second big consequence I
Think we saw is that other countries were filling the Gap that the US had left behind uh and and so we heard uh from from Das lying about China’s interest in 6 gigahertz well we saw that in other places as well uh you know France had identified the 6 gz band as
The only highquality domestic resource they had for future 5G and 6G deployments they sought to protect that they were very successful in in Region 2 which is Europe the Middle East and Africa in in accomplishing that uh and they left left that conference with with not only harmonizing the region along
That plan but also an opportunity for other countries to opt in to using the 6 gigahertz band for for 5G and 6G and we saw a lot of countries in the Asia Pacific take up that opportunity we saw our two biggest trading partners in our region Brazil and Mexico also take that
Opportunity uh so we saw the ability of other countries to shape Spectrum policy independently of us priorities at this conference in a way that I don’t think we’ve ever seen before so these are two consequences that I think we’re watching at least to see what happens that said
Because of that Global interest in finding full power midband spectrum because of the ability of other countries to to want to make progress on that issue we did see some helpful outcomes at this conference uh we saw the lower 3 gigahertz span become harmonized uh across uh uh the region
One and two and so this is truly a global 5G ban now we saw 7 GHz be identified as a target for future harmonization activity this is an opportunity for the United States to lead because that’s a band that we’ve identified in our national Spectrum strategy as well so there are these
Outcomes I think from the conference that really start to pave a path for the United States uh to to follow in order to start to close some of the gap between us and other countries on on Spectrum policy so um instead of going to another does anybody want to do any response
Thoughts to that that was a lot Kate you kind of looked for like a second you might have some thoughts on that nope yeah yeah well I was listening I have thoughts on domestic Spectrum policy we started with space and we came back to Earth for good we can go back to
Domestic well now I’ll bring it back from internation Dubai to the United States um no I think it’s interesting the different points that um made and we were following the world radio communication conference uh very closely uh one of my bosses I work for chairwoman Kathy McMorris Rogers on the
Energy and Commerce Committee and one of her top priorities has been to reauthorize the Spectrum auction Authority since it expired um one of the big uh you know priorities that she had in doing so was also ensuring that the dod study that was being done and was directed as part of the infrastructure
Investment and jobs Act was done uh you know appropriately in in accordance with our normal Spectrum management feasibility studies I guess would be the case and I think and she introduced just to back up a little bit she introduced the Spectrum auction reauthorization act which would have reauthorized Spectrum auction
Authority for three years made some changes to the directive that was given to the dod and to Department of Commerce and the infrastructure law in studying the lower 3 gigahertz band primarily by adding back in ntia into the process which was not included in the the dod study is directed by
Iiga um that legislation did not pass and unfortunately auction Authority expired I think some of the things that um was talking about in the world radio communication conference is very especially in the 3 gigahertz band is extremely interesting given where the US has sort of been and now where the
Administration is going so the legislation that that passed out of committee that we did not pass through the house that would have made changes to how dod did the study but DOD has now released the study and provided it to Congress and the way that they did the
Study I think was pretty disappointing and I I can speak for our members that there was a lot of concern with some of the results and the testing um and the technical parameters that were used to do the study one of which was that DOD was given $50 million and they studied
Only sharing opportunities in the current environment that we’re operating in and I think some of the points that um touched on with the three gigahertz band now being internationally Harmon harmonized is for IMT it’s concerning that that’s how that is what we studied as the US instead of looking ahead and
Looking to see what potential clearing and even better sharing opportunities there could be going forward if you know systems could relocate or the Spectrum relocation fund is able to provide funding or an auction brings in you know enough funding for these systems to relocate into a different band and so
We’re looking going forward um you know what are opportunities that these agencies can can study and take in different Spectrum bands to be able to best you know as their systems upgrade are there better Spectrum bands that are suited for some of these systems that could then make commercial uh Spectrum
Opportunities available so we’re looking at that going forward I I can say from my boss’s perspective um she thinks that making Spectrum available for commercial use is an economic security issue which then plays into promoting our national security we think that both of those things are extremely important and all
Systems can coexist but it’s a lot of work and so um we’re we’re taking a look we’ve been meeting with the agencies especially post the administration releasing their National Spectrum strategy uh and I’m hopeful we can make progress in this space so Evelyn is one
Of the few people that get to look in perhaps a little bit inside the black box or is using my asset recycling perspective it’s like there’s a big black building on the corner and we’re know there’s secrets in it but we don’t know which ones are important and do
They need all the floors in that building or does the building could it be moved I mean there’s there’s a lot of challenges that you have when you’re trying to talk about domestic or International policy and you don’t get to see all the puzzle pieces right and
So talk to us a little bit about the the security elements and where can we work through this when you’re looking at it from a commercial perspective and not wanting to put anything about our our national security and harm or what can we do to also perhaps um strengthen
National Security while we’re looking at Spectrum thanks thanks Shane and it’s so great to be here with so many of my uh current and former colleagues um it’s such an important topic uh especially talking about National Security uh at this particular moment um you know I
Think that uh within the USG we’ve been a little bit slow to recognize um how important spectrum is uh for National Security more holistically not just about protecting it for our weapon systems um but also the fact fact that uh when we are leading on technology uh
When we’re strong globally um when you look at the future of where Communications is going it’s all about Mobility um and we want to lead in those Technologies we want our companies to lead um when the US has the edge in those Technologies we have an security
Advantage um we can be sure that our supply chains are trusted and we can bring other uh Global Partners on board uh with our technology and know uh that we can trade and share uh and that using that Communications technology that our values will be protected um in the use
Of Technology as we all know um technology especially uh mo mobility included um opens up so much of our data to potential exposure to potential cyber threats um and so again make being sure that we have a trusted supply chain uh is essential um and again the us having
An edge uh in those Technologies where technology is going uh in terms of Mobility uh which allows things uh like smart Agriculture and autonomous vehicles that is the future of where technology is going uh if the US is not leading in those Technologies we’re not leading uh in the future economy um and
That has an impact on our national security so it’s absolutely essential um that we are thinking holistically about our Spectrum policy not just for the National Security that impacts weapon systems but this broader uh soft power issues as well um I would say that um within the USG that that that uh Second
Part we’ve been a little bit slow to incorporate that into our Spectrum decision making um you know I think one area that you’re seeing now uh within defense uh and you know I spent uh several years working at the Pentagon uh in that environment and um you know
We’re this is not just a struggle on the Spectrum side um you know right now DOD is looking uh for example to revamp how they do uh software acquisition uh they realized that they were not being agile enough um they realize that there’s so much uh you know software as a service
That they need to be taking advantage of in the marketplace um to actually again stay on The Cutting Edge of where technology is going and to protect the war fighter um they are revamping that they’re revamping how they do um software policy and software acquisition they have uh you know an innovation unit
Looking at this issue um we have not gotten there yet on the Spectrum side um and you know we really need to uh get into that mode um that you know the Spectrum again you talked about it being invisible I think sometimes we forget what a strategic asset it is um but it
Is so essential uh for everything that we do um on the National Security and defense side um and so if we don’t start thinking uh more strategically about the asset actually looking uh at the de deade uh that we’re in with technology doing it more agile um right now we’re
Making Spectrum decisions based on you know we H we we’re locked into policy uh because we have systems that you know are go out into 20130 and we feel that we can’t change anything in that time well the next decade even the national uh security strategy says that the next
This decade that we’re in is the decisive decade for National Security and so if we don’t get more agile start um actually uh taking uh these issues seriously and a spectrum harmonization which we were dealing with at WRC again is part of the way that we have uh the
Edge in technology um and National Security we’re not going to get there so we need to revisit how we’re doing um the decision- making this this uh new Spectrum strategy tries to get at some of that um but uh the implementation plan really needs to address that uh and
We need to start working on it before the next WRC is that sunk cost or is that a level of decision paralysis it’s like decision’s been made I don’t want to revisit it or they’re like I’ve already spent on like with software I know people feel like I’ve already
Invested and they don’t understand the maintenance and the upkeep of it and with Spectrum are we look at in a similar way of like we have to keep thinking new thoughts about how we can be utilizing and and reprocessing our priorities on how we use these bands we
Don’t incen I it we don’t uh you know the way that the decision process works is that um we it’s all about uh again protecting those Legacy systems um if you’re someone who’s part of the decision chain uh you’re not uh rewarded uh for trying to get to yes for being
Innovative um so we really have to in uh revisit it at every level uh and start rewarding those uh individuals who are part of the decision chain to get more Innovative to try to think out of the box in terms of how we can get to a
Better solution and not uh just stay in the same place year after year I feel like we need to get one of those hor home organizer ladies that’s on HGTV to come in and be like you’re using your closet all wrong you know like think about it this way shoes should not be
There so um Tracy com in on this conversation sorry for that bad segue uh to the importance of of unlic because it’s a little bit of an unsung hero on this panel um we all use it and we like it but it’s it’s a it’s a challenged
Child in this whole thing we don’t it doesn’t it doesn’t get some of the uh same priorities as licens and it’s fighting for that space it’s fighting for that space in the uh the closet so tell us about the importance of unlicensed thanks so much Shane I’m
Happy to be here and I’m just happy to be having this conversation with you all it’s a very important conversation and uh would just you know really like to thank the US delegation um um the WRC for doing a a great job of protecting uh us Innovation particularly with regard
To Wi-Fi and unlicensed Technologies we were uh ncta and our members were happy with the result as Ambassador um as the Ambassador spoke about earlier today um 6 gigahertz is a um the the work that’s been done in 6 gtz is an American success story uh and uh it’s important
To build on the strengths that we have that we’ve um that we’ve already seen in um Wi-Fi 6E and and that we’ll soon see in the Wi-Fi 7 devices that are are rolling out um and it’s also important to note that you know uh it’s focusing
On us strengths is a you know it’s a good thing it’s it it helps everyone um focusing on competition and Innovation those are are are are qualities that are you know are good for uh the the world not just for the US so um just wanted to
Kind of make those notes where you know we are pleased with how uh you know things turned out at the WRC and look forward to continuing the conversation around what spectrum policy should look like um with the national Spectrum strategy implementation plan we uh are you know especially excited to see how
Ntia uh decides to move forward with the 7 and 8 GHz band um our kind of range uh we see that there’s opportunity for Wi-Fi there as um we look at the um 6 GHz band um Wi-Fi 7 is able to use Channel sizes up to 320 megahertz and
There’s a um a kind of a a stranded Channel at the top of the 6 GHz band of 125 MHz if we um just continue to extend things up to the bottom of the 7 GHz band that will allow for four full 320 MHz channels which will uh really enable
Wi-Fi 7 to uh to to realize its full potential and that and that comes into play where we see continued advances in VR and AR Technologies uh as well as other um you know applications and and so forth as Evelyn mentioned there are um a lot of use cases outside of just
Kind of what we think of as traditional Wi-Fi provision um more kind of private networks where agriculture is able to um agricultural entities are able to set up their own networks using this um this new technology ology and um and really um kind of cater their networks to what
They need and how they actually need to use the Spectrum and so um just wanted to um you know kind of as you mentioned yeah unlicensed sometimes uh is is you know is not as prevalent in these conversations but certainly uh is an American success story that I think we
All need to continue to tout and look forward to um continuing to do so you veryy you want to jump in on that point sure don’t turn your microphone off just leave it on you know at the start of this I saw everyone checking their mics
And I was like I know how to use a mic and of course of course I’ve I’ve messed it up every time um so uh you know I might actually push back a little bit on that idea that that unlicensed is is fighting for its place as sort of the
Unloved Spectrum child um the United States is leading the world when it comes to unlicensed and shared Spectrum if you look domestically the availability of unlicensed and shared Spectrum in in the pivotal midband eclipses licensed use about 4 to1 in in just the past 2 years we’ve made about 13 1,350 megahertz of
Almost contiguous Spectrum available for unlicensed and shared use I mean that would be a dream uh I think for for licensed use uh if you go in the millimeter wave uh same story uh about 3 to one uh of uh of unlicensed and shared uh Spectrum compared to compared to
Licensed use so uh the United States has made tremendous progress when it comes to UNL license and shared use we’re leading the world on this metric there’s no one who’s even close to catching up on this and if uh if you remember the conversation just preceding this panel
Uh the US’s the US government’s top priority going into the world radio communication conference was preserving its unlicensed decisions and so I think there’s a lot of attention and focus being given there I think we need to lead the world on both we need to be
Leading on unlicensed we also need to be leading the world unlicensed and I think our domestic Spectrum policy decision-making has to reflect what’s happening in the rest of the world and so it’s in that licensed midband Spectrum where the United States faces the biggest Gap we see that Gap I think
From two angles the first is is what I call the keeping up with the Joneses if you look at what the rest of the world is doing we’re trailing in the availability of midband license Spectrum uh and and as I said earlier a lot of uh countries left the conference with the
Potential for even more Spectrum the second place where we see the Gap is is in in capacity so data demand has been grow growing twofold uh every 2 years for the past 10 years right now we don’t have a pipeline of licensed midband Spectrum in the United States to
Continue to keep up with that demand uh and that’s another thing that we need to address uh I think as a nation if you look at the world radio communication conference the rest of the world has identified that 6 gigahertz band as the home for for future 5G and 6G
Deployments I think that that makes the 7 and 8 GHz band unique important to the mobile industry in the United States and this is for a couple of reasons the first is that the 6 GHz band is not available for Mobile in the United States because we’ve allocated that full 1200 mahz for
Unlicense the 7 and 8 gahz band is right next to it that means that we can get in the same tuning range as that 6 gahz band and that opens up a lot of benefits it means that we can benefit benefit from economies of scale with deployments
In the 60 GHz band it means that we can participate in the equipment market for the 6 and 7 and 8 GHz band and that’s really important because if we learned anything in the runup to 5G it’s that when we don’t participate in that equipment Market we create National
Security risk for ourselves because you see companies like uh Huawei and ZTE being the only supplier available to countries who are deploying in that Spectrum you don’t see the development of a secure market for for equipment and that’s something we have to change uh so I think that we’ve got
To we’ve got to catch up on the licensed midband Spectrum we’ve got to update our policies to reflect what the rest of the world is doing uh and we’ve got to start to make progress on that 7 and8 GHz band which brings us back to domestic in the
Spectrum pipeline how I know you Kate you worked really hard on it how how does 2024 look so we a lot of a lot has changed since last Congress we have uh a a new Senate leadership on the Republican side um so and you know the
Dod study has now been put forward the world radio communication uh conference happened the N the White House put out released their National Spectrum strategy we have started having conversations uh with the Four Corners to see what’s in the realm of possible I think something that’s really interesting that I’ve noticed I’ve been
On the hill now almost 10 years um I guess on and off but almost there uh and 10 years ago having conversations about Spectrum was like this is so boring we’re going to just hotline this or we’ll get thisa Senate Commerce and no big deal and now you have members on the
House side I can at least speak for it but you have members from other committees that immediately pay attention as soon as a band that a federal agency that’s in their jurisdiction is potentially going to be impacted by and something that I learned when I was at ntia and experienced
Unfortunately before I even came back to the hill was that agencies and sometimes it I mean these are really tough decisions to make but agencies here about potential Rel location or potential you know for an auction to happen or the FCC is going to go in and
Advocate I was actually at Niti during the last World radio communication conference and that was a huge issue because of power levels and it was there were agencies that were engaged because where the US ended up Landing was concerning to certain agencies so it’s it is amazing how even in the last five
Or six years how many people are now paying attention to Spectrum policy which is really technical by nature and so I’m listening to you guys talk about on license versus license and up on the hill I’m not an engineer I don’t pretend to be an engineer um and we always talk
About which I know some people here will probably cringe when I say this but we always talk about advocating for a balanced Spectrum policy we mean that and by balance we think that unlicensed plays a huge role in our our economy we think that license plays a huge role in our economy but
There are benefits to different types of spectrum license for example especially coming from a political dynamic it’s an offset for funding so we can fund things like rip and the secure and trusted Communications networks Act created R replace I just immediately got to RI replace um but that’s a huge national
Security issue that our members have been focused on for a while licensed Spectrum provides potential opportunity for our committee to committee to be able to fund that at the same time we see all the advances that are happening in both licensed and unlicensed and unlicensed just has more flexibility
When you’re looking at potential pockets for sharing with Federal users or incumbent users so it’s tough in terms of an Outlook we’re optimistic it is a top priority for my boss as people here I’m sure from the agencies that I see know we are constantly talking with them
And bringing them up for briefings with our members so it is definitely top of mind and we’re hopeful but we’ll see so an open question to the whole group of you who spent a lot more time trying to relocate Spectrum than I have I’ve just been listening to all these
Conversations what what do you think are the next steps coming so we’ve had World radio conference we have an idea globally what we can and can’t play with but so now we’re back into our domestic space what is the best next step and is that a difference between you two on
Unlicensed and licensed is it a matter of we can’t get the feds to move so I mean is that an unmovable object I’m asking a couple questions at once here but um so thoughts on that because that seems to be the big question mark is all
Right so where what is the chest piece we put out next and then what are the gains on that and does does that make a difference the e games make a difference or does it just a matter of who has the biggest black box building that you
Can’t look into something like that do you want to start sure I mean I think that um so as tough that it as it is um the WRC did give us some direction right the outcomes there so um you know we know what happened with the 6 GHz but um
There was decisions made um around uh 7 GHz uh for IMT as well as that 3.3 to 3.4 uh which we’ve said that we will will revisit um have additional study there even though DOD has already um put its report out so um we need to commit
Uh to doing that study taking a look again seeing uh if something was missed what what we can uncover um that could be very very important piece of the puzzle if we could add um something there and find a solution um and then just as um was saying um on the seven
Because that is so critical for us getting those economies of scale we need to start working on that immediately um and if there are going to be um you know issues and disagreements um on that path ahead and and potential agency issues um we we really need to uh start uh those those
Conversations and really expedite them now thought yeah can I jump in on your question first of all I I could applaud Kate and her team for trying to get auction Authority extended I fully support that I think everyone who has been involved in trying to figure out
How do you get licenses out knows that auctions are the best way to go about it um I do absolutely agree and no commentary on existing bands that are under discussion but we are going to need more commercial Spectrum which is more licensed and unlicensed and that
Means doing the hard lifting of moving our Department of Defense and making them upgrade and shrinking their footprint I say that I’ve said that for the last many years as you read my bio um that is not always a popular belief um and it is a very heavy lifting we
Talk about breaking eggs we talk about how hard it is and you have to push agencies um you know against their wishes and they do end runs on you to Congress to try and find different Avenues to undo sound decisions we saw that in FAA and cand we’ve seen that
Many time time again so that’s a heavy lift to do but it’s absolutely necessary for the future of of commercial Wireless uh advancement we also need to address the fact that WRC itself has got some problems and I would also argue you know as we’re out of WR you know 27 or sorry
We out out of 23 we do need to fix the US approach to to WRC we kind of had a backwards late minute last game approach all disrespect to Ambassador Lang and and the work that he was able to do but he was not the First Choice um and and
The the choice even of of of commissioner Gomez was long in in the process other countries don’t do that and you think about who’s dominating in WRC today it’s the countries you mentioned it’s Iran it’s Russia China France those countries dominate this discussion they aren’t our you know
Adversary our allies on these issues they often do things that are in their geopolitical interest against the United States so we do need to fix the US proposal or the US approach to WRC and I think there’s some things that need to be done on the Ambassador level and
Ambassadorship level that we could do on legislation love to talk to Kate about that we do need to fix some things we do need to make more midband spec Spectrum available for commercial purposes going forward for both sides of the equation and that means pushing agencies farther
Than they like and the idea that the AG are so sophisticated and are very up to tune on Spectrum policy I think that’s debatable um disputable given some of the things that we’ve learned about how our our previous DOD Spectrum managers were handling um the the the job that
They were asked to do Tracy did you want to get in uh yes thanks just just leave your microne I may have lost power okay um but just uh wanted to say that I do think it’s important to like look for look at WRC first and then kind of zoom in domestically
Um you know just one point I wanted to be sure to make is you know we saw that 6 GHz did was designated for IMT and a you know a number of places outside of the US however there is a a footnote as Ambassador Lang mentioned that’s that
Says that U Rens and Wi-Fi could also be used in those bands so it’s not a foro foregone conclusion that those um you know that 6 gigz is is certainly going to be an IMT band around the world outside of the US so I think it’s
Important to to think about that as we are kind of huddling back in the US and and figuring out what is our strategy for the next conference uh and you know I I think part of that is already kind of teed up for us in the National Spectrum strategies there are some bands
That we’re looking at there’s you know have has been a great opportunity for um for industry to provide input on you know how people think these bands should be studied or or weather and you know kind of what the timeline and implementation should look like so I
Think that kind of you know next steps are to you know to roll out that implementation and um and work here on the ground to um you know to hash out um you know things domestically and ensuring that there is a b a balanced Spectrum policy there is a need for you
Know for different types of spectrum and and and doing that keeping in mind that uh you know coexistence is key especially where there are you know these banss where there’s Federal use and Department of Defense is using um you know Spectrum in ways that you know sometime is often classified and you
Know we can’t see behind and into that black box um however um you know we look at the different tools in the toolbox and there are different ways to coexist with um the federal incumbents that are um you know in these various bands and I think you know kind of really honing in
On that um and you know coexistence and and um and those bands will help to uh get to the point of releasing the um Spectrum for commercial use where so so first I want to add a A plus one to what uh commissioner Riley was saying uh about continuing to think
About our Preparatory process for the world radio communication conference and we were talking about this a little bit before the start of the panel in that the conference ends and then you almost sort of don’t hear about it again for four years and then there’s another mad
Rush to prepare for it and and uh uh position ourselves and and so I I completely agree that I think we would benefit from from keeping some focus on this conference and thinking about uh how can we uh adjust processes both domestically and internationally to maximize our
Success there um because I think there’s there’s room for improvement when when we look at itu processes how how far ahead do we normally try to put the Ambassador in place because this seemed exceptionally late but not abnormally late yeah so it’s uh you know it’s different between conferences but I
Would say within a year before the start of the conference there’s usually a named uh named Ambassador and Evelyn tend to identify somebody to help but they don’t tend to um actually send up as they don’t want to go through the normal Ambassador process c um they
Think it gets difficult in Congress um has someone who’s worked on nominations I you know and my own I know how that process can work but um so they would they tend to just have somebody identified and then later on towards the end the president’s able to you know to
Appoint them without needing congress’s approval I think you need to fix that process we should you know try and prioritize that and address that way ahead other countries aren’t having temporary ambassadors I you know I put my money that Ambassador Lang is not going to be working on this issue in
Four years working on it much after this if he can get away from it yeah he’s going to be in some other country you know or somewhere else so we have to fix that process and and and that requires more than just the last couple minutes saying okay here’s our
Ambassador uh and I also want to uh uh uh agree with Tracy in terms of where we go from here I think we we need to start making some progress I I look at 2023 as almost a year of planning with the national Spectrum strategy with all the conversations we had about auction
Authority uh with the world radio communication conference and and so I think 2024 now needs to be a year of action we need to start actually building on some of the momentum that we have I think that means uh Congress restoring auction Authority hopefully with a with a a predictable pipeline of
Of spectrum to support commercial Innovation uh I think it means nitia releasing an implementation plan that gives uh everyone some confidence that these studies that we’re going to do over the next two years are going to result in some sort of outcome that that’s workable um uh and I think it
Means uh making progress on the lower three and the s an 8 gz band uh especially okay I I mean I think this was pretty well covered one thing I will add is I don’t I don’t want it to be P I totally agree that Congress should be
Speaking to these issues and that pressure is going to be necessary to make Spectrum available for commercial licensed use but I also want to be clear that nobody is say well at least from my perspective my members uh on the Energy and Commerce Committee that I work with
Work for um they are not trying to take away Spectrum from the agencies necessarily so I think that there’s a lot of talk of like it’s either Federal Spectrum or it’s commercial spectrum and there’s no in between what our member and I think historically it has been
That way because there’s been a little bit lower hanging fruit and better opportunities to just clear Spectrum but what our what the members that are on Energy and Commerce on the Republican side what we’re really focused on is that agencies just can’t come into a conversation and just say no anymore and
I think that is where this conversation really needs to shift is as we’re working with Nia as ni is working with the agencies there needs to be a conversation of how to get to yes and that’s something that I don’t I have not seen has really been the case in the
Last several years especially as we’re talking about repurposing opportunities or looking for for potential opportunities for commercial use in the in the federal Spectrum space great we’re going to go to questions did you have any last thoughts sorry on that topic nope I I would just plus one for me on
That every okay good to know um we questions here in the audience and then Kate just a point of inquiry where am I supposed to be asking people to send information or is it on the they be emailing you either uh to Hash ask AI
Tech or to Owen’s email which is oh on the event between the two of you we’re going to work on that the last names okay and please introduce yourself happy to my name is Patrick loado with the Telecommunications industry Association thank you for your remarks today and the vibrant discussion
Um I had a two-part question focused on capacity and institutions we’ve seen a number of the organizations responsible for us engagement on spectrum and international Communications issues specifically the state department CDP Bureau and the fcc’s space and international Bureau change how they’re organized in the past two years how has
That impacted you think the US’s position abroad and and how we engage at WRC first part of the question and secondly are these agencies and institutions sufficiently resourced and staffed to engage with the complex technical questions raised in these forums any volunteers to take that one I’ll take the first part uh
Certainly I don’t think that the rest of the world um respectfully cares too much whether there’s a space Bureau or not a space Bureau um I think it’s you know it’s it was the decision of the commission to do so and I applaud that but I don’t know that they look upon
That as a big changing um significant given the issues that they’re tackling the same thing with State Department in terms of your resources question I don’t know it’s much about resources as much as about attention and so I would you know advocate for an ambassador that’s done way in advance and the coordination
Between the state department and FCC is very is fairly good um and but there there could should be more with and it’s that corresponds to the executive branch and how they approach the overall treatment of spectrum this hasn’t exactly been uh forthcoming this this in this last couple years so I think
There’s fixes to be had but I don’t know if it’s much about resources or money being dedicated I think the active industry that’s engaged um is really attuned to these issues and then as a said we tend to lose interest after you know six months after uh
WC a year after WRC we you know start thinking about the next one but there’s that that golly you know that Val excuse me that shouldn’t exist and that needs to be improved I’ve been advocating for a long time that industry needs to step up its game I think they really have um
They really have been active they were’t active in 23 I’m sure there’ll be more in 27 as we go forward to Kate’s point on how spectrums become more uh interesting I think that’s exactly right I think what some of these reorganizations within the government might reflect is is a um a recognition
Of of the growing interdependencies between some of these issues uh especially in Spectrum uh and so you look at the state department and how it has reorganized and uh uh you see the connections now between spectrum and uh uh equipment security and and the supplier base uh that that Evelyn was
Talking about you see all these interdependencies I think that’s what the reorganizations really bring out and and make us better positioned to to think about um and in terms of resources uh completely agree uh you know I think the FCC I’ll just speak to the FCC since
I was most recently there uh we have we had increased uh the the number of staff and resources that were dedicated to things like standards work and and part of the reason for that is one we saw the increasing importance of Standards development uh in in these issues and
Two we saw other countries uh dedicating quite a bit of resources to to participating in these standard organizations and we thought we needed an answer to that and so um I I think throughout the government we’ve we’ve seen similar responses and I’ll just quickly add that
But um you know the most important thing is the inter agency collaboration for all of these meetings and so um you know it’s great to see the recognition with reorganizations um you know the national Spectrum uh strategy and the presidential memo that uh accompanied that have some additional um new
Structures that are going to be put in place to help decision-making across the inter agency that consensus building process um that’s really the most important thing um to try to get um the administration on the same page and with all equities considered as they go into these meetings um in terms of resourcing
I would just add that um Workforce is hugely important here we can always use more Spectrum Engineers uh in the federal government um so you know you know that’s a message we have to keep um putting forward yeah any questions from okay Nathan over here this is going to
Be we’re at uh 3:30 so this will be our last question unless anybody anybody else dying to ask a question just checking okay when I uh worked on the hill we used to have people who would reach out like every week and they we call them frequent flyers so I’m doing
My best frequent flyer impression today um we’ll give you a number before you leave yeah exactly yeah so over the past few years there were a number of actions both the fcc’s taken the White House Capitol Hill looking at things like Huawei ZT Etc we also have a lot of like
Inter AAL things happening right now when when you think about WRC which is like a thing that occurs every four years with the rise of like a new Chinese Leo that’s competing with American Leos what just for as an example or Tik Tok Etc what are some International Pain points that you guys
First see happening that like if you were a betting person on FanDuel you’re like this is an area where I expect people to be talking about in two years that they’re not talking about now is there anything off the top of your guys’ head that like we should be on the
Lookout for that would be maybe become topic conversation next year’s uh next WRC that we’re not thinking about now or or no just the standard you know answers that we give all the time I just figure I’d ask if there’s something new that’s off on someone else’s
Radar look it’s really going to matter what happens in November um and how whichever Administration leads the the game there are some things on in my mind that I think that will be important but some of this is changing on a quicker basis and having a conference every four years makes little sense
So Tracy want yes so it’s it’s hard to know what we don’t know but I just like to throw this in because it had some ADM menion today I’m sure AI will play a part in uh you know what happens the next WRC and so um you know working on
That issue too I think it’s important to kind of you know have a a view where we’re looking at Spectrum AI cyber security all of those things kind of rolled up and um you know thinking holistically Nath I think you’ve been doing this long enough to know we’ll
Still be talking about legado and all the same things four years from now nothing Chang no um uh I I I think you know one thing that I am uh really interested in watching is is you know so much of the focus within the United
States is has uh not so much but some of the focus has shifted to this idea of dynamic Spectrum sharing uh and doing a test bed and doing a moonshot and and what that will mean domestically for the United States I’m interested to see what it will mean internationally as well as
You know what we saw at the world radio communication conference was still tremendous interest in licensed full power exclusive use Spectrum for the rest of the world uh and and pursuing a different model what will it mean for our ability to deploy as fast as these other countries since uh usually those
Models require the creation of separate devices separate base stations uh what will it mean for economies of scale uh for for the equipment produced by American countries so that’s that’s something that I’ll be looking at at least I’m excited to see what happens with the national Spectrum strategy um
As I mentioned we’ve been working to try and uh you know pass Spectrum legislation and draft Spectrum legislation with the other Commerce Committee Corners uh I think there were some you know I know some people have said that they wish the Spectrum National Spectrum strategy was a little
Bit more aggressive I don’t necessarily disagree but I also think getting all of those agencies to sign off on a document that large and that aggressive is a pretty big feat and it helps us in our efforts to try and identify Spectrum so I’m excited to see what happens with
That I also am curious to see what happens over the next year year uh of a presidential election and going into a new or I guess ending a Congress and going into a new one is always very interesting on Capitol Hill so stay tuned and I don’t know if this will
Catch us by the next WRC but uh in addition to AI I think Quantum is going to be something that we’ll have to be dealing with and both on the encryption side but also what it can help us do combination of AI Quantum uh Computing to help us to- do Spectrum uh decision
Making and management a much more FC way and uh in collaboration with our International Partners in a trusted way well thank you all very much for all the work you’ve done in the past and you’re going to continue to do so all of our devices be it unlicensed or licensed
Continue to work and eventually we’re all going to have our own Baby Leo up on our rooftop which is going to be fantastic so uh please join me in thanking our panel today