GAO: FCC, NTIA Should Bolster Spectrum-Management Processes

摘要

The FCC and the National Telecommunications and Information Administration "should establish clearly defined and agreed-upon processes for making decisions on spectrum-management activities that involve other agencies, particularly when consensus cannot be reached," the Government Accountability Office said in a report released July 19 that explored disagreement among federal agencies over technical limits for the 24 gigahertz band to protect passive-sensing satellite operations.The GAO report also called on the FCC and NTIA to (1) "clarify and further identify shared goals or outcomes for spectrum-management activities that involve collaboration and ways to monitor and track progress"; (2) "update the FCC-NTIA [spectrum] MOU to address identified gaps (such as the lack of clearly defined goals and agreed-upon processes for making decisions) and develop a means to continually monitor and update this agreement"; (3) ask the State Department to "initiate a review of the General Guidance Document - in consultation with FCC, NTIA, and other relevant participants - and update and develop a means to continually monitor and update this document"; and (4) "establish procedures to help guide the design (including selection of acceptable assumptions and methodologies) of spectrum-sharing and potential-interference studies intended as U.S. contributions to WRC technical meetings" in consultation with federal stakeholders.