Implementing the PCAST Spectrum Sharing Report

At a time when Congress and the FCC was focused solely on spectrum auctions as a way to meet exploding mobile device data demand, the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST) in 2012 recommended a parallel path to bandwidth abundance: opening a “spectrum superhighway” on underutilized military and other Federal government airwaves.  President Obama last year issued an executive order putting the Administration squarely behind spectrum sharing as a technical and economic underpinning of America’s wireless future. 

In a speech on Monday, FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler announced that he will soon circulate “proposed rules designed to make the PCAST [spectrum sharing] vision a reality.” The FCC is seeking to implement the PCAST framework to create a Citizens Broadband Service and open an additional 150 MHz of high-quality spectrum for dynamic spectrum sharing.  The band will be low-power - forcing efficient spectrum re-use - and for the first time combine both opportunistic (unlicensed) and licensed access.

At this forum, the President’s top economic advisor, his deputy CTO for telecom policy, and PCAST members who led the formulation of the ground-breaking PCAST report, will review progress on the implementation of the Council’s 2012 recommendations and its importance to the U.S. economy.

Join the conversation online using #PCAST and by following @OTI.

Participants:

Jason Furman
Chair, President’s Council of Economic Advisors
@CEAChair

Tom Power 
Deputy CTO for Telecommunications, White House Office on Science and Technology Policy

@WhiteHouseOSTP

John Leibovitz
Deputy Bureau Chief, Wireless Telecommunications Bureau and Spectrum Advisor to the Chairman,
Federal Communications Commission

@FCC

Craig Mundie
Member, President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST) and Senior Advisor to the CEO, Microsoft Corporation

@Microsoft

Mark Gorenberg

Member, President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST) and Founder and Managing Director, Zetta Venture Partners

Milo Medin
Vice President of Access Services, Google Inc., and Invited Expert, PCAST
@Google

Moderator:

Michael Calabrese
Director, Wireless Future Project, New America Foundation and Invited Expert, PCAST
@MichaelCalabre1