From DEFENSE NEWS Monday 1 July 1991

DoD Fights for its Share of Radio Spectrum

Legislation Would Transfer Space from Government to Commerical Users
By Neil Munro

WASHINGTON -- The U.S. Department of Defense, trying to protect its 
place on a crowded radio spectrum, is fighting two bill in Congress 
that would reserve more space for commercial users.

 Squeezed by a growing number of commercial users on the radio 
spectrum, the Pentagon is facing difficulties fielding radars to 
detect stealthy aircraft or training with electronic warfare
equipment, Defense Department officials say.

 Two bills now in Congress would transfer from the government
to industry space on the spectrum equivalent to about one-
fourth of the Pentagon's space.  The purpose is to encourage
development of new commercial radio technologies such as 
mobile telephones.

 "It is a tough political question, [but] we simply are asking 
that it be done carefully, and deliberately," said Thomas Quinn,
the DoD's director of tactical and strategic command, control and
communication policy.  The goal of supporting new commercial 
technologies is reasonable, especially because of technological
progress by other countries, Quinn said.

 The overall trend is bleak for the Defense Department, officials
said, because of increasing domestic and international crowding
of the spectrum.

 For example, Defense Department electronic research facilities
are being force out of urban areas because of electronic inter-
ferance from commercial and industrial products, while a proposed
cellular telephone system in Mexico would use the same frequency
as the U.S. Navy's E-2C Hawkeye radar aircraft.

 An international conference called the World Administrative
Radio Conference will be held next year in Spain to discuss
the allocation of frequencies worldwide.  U.S. Defense
Department officials say they are concerned that decisions
made in the conference could push the DoD out of some 
favored frequencies.

 The U.S. House Energy and Commerce Committee approved
a spectrum reallocation bill in late May sponsored by
committee Chairman John Dingell, D-Mich.  The bill,
to be debated in the House by mid-July, calls for the
government to negotiate for the gradual transfer of
portions of the radio spectrum to commercial users
over the next few years.

 The transfer would be planned over two years by an
interagency group composed of the Federal Communica-
tions and the National Telecommunications and 
Information Administration.  A special panel consist-
ing of industry experts and a government official would
comment on arrangements for sharing the spectrum.

 A bill sponsored by Sen. Daniel Inouye, D-Hawaii, has
arrangements for working out the spectrum transfer, but
places tighter limits on the government's choice of which
radio spectrum regions to transfer.

 The radio spectrum is the range of frequencies available
for use by radio and radar.

 The usable space on the spectrum is becoming increasingly
crowded by cellular phones, television broadcasts, satellite
broadcasts and microwave telephone links.  If two signals
use the same space on the spectrum at the same time they 
can interfere, wrecking them both.

 Space on the frequency spectrum is measured in units called
Hertz.  More space is needed to transmit high-quality 
pictures than to transmit a simple radio signal.  For example
, U.S. television channels use up to 12 million Hertz, while
a radio signal or a mobile telephone call might only occupy
25,000 Hertz.

 The radio region has 5 billion Hertz of space, including
645 million exclusively for the Defense Department, roughly
1.3 billion exclusively for industry and the rest shared
between the government and industry.

 The bill in Congress would transfer up to 200 million
Hertz from the government and DoD to commercial users.

 DoD officials say they are afraid they will be ejected
from most desirable regions of the spectrum.  Competition
for the spectrum is sharper in some particular valuable
regions.  For example, one suitable frequency for
satellite broadcasting of radio signals is the frequency
used by DoD officials to monitor the performance of weapons
during testing.
 
 Even if radios and radar can use other portions of the 
spectrum without losing some capabilities, the cost to
the Defense Department of changing frequencies "gets
into the hundreds of millions of dollars pretty quick-
ly", says Quinn.

 The cost of changing the frequencies used by the U.S.
Air Force's satellite control network could reach $1.2
billion, officials said.

 Also, Pentagon officials complain that while they try to
exploit technology to make the best use of the limited 
spectrum they have, industry groups given other regions
of the spectrum make no effort to minimize their use.

 Defense Department officials say they are penalized
when forced to share frequencies with television,
burglar alarms or garage door openers that are 
produced so cheaply that they lack protection from
DoD's authorized signals.

 For example, when Navy radio transmitters operating 
at their proper assigned frequencies activated burglar
alarms through San Diego several years ago, the 
disruption to civilian life forced the Navy to modify 
the radio systems, said a Navy official, "even though
legally we were right, and they were wrong."

 Tom Stanley, chief engineer for the Federal 
Communications Commission, which sets regulations
for use of frequencies, said he did not think the
Defense Department would be forced to share more
frequencies with such unprotected devices.

 The only possible long-term solutions to the 
spectrum to the spectrum crowding is for the 
government to charge companies for the use of the
spectrum, forcing them to use as little of the 
spectrum as they need, said Defense Department
officials.

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as copied from DEFENSE NEWS Monday 1 July 1991 by Rodger KD9HT


 
















