{mosads}“I’ve been working on changing the way we allocate spectrum for a long time, because a smarter system is good for our economy, good for innovation, and vital to keeping our cops, firefighters and EMTs safe,” Biden said. “The measure that Congress just passed picks up on many aspects of the President’s Wireless Innovation Initiative and will enable new spectrum to be used for innovation, to speed wireless communication, and to fulfill a promise made to first responders after 9/11 that they would have the technology they need to stay safe and do their jobs.”
The report from Council of Economic Advisers found that the surge in wireless data traffic has created a “spectrum crunch” for wireless providers.
“It is unlikely that wireless carriers will be able to accommodate this surging demand without additional spectrum,” the analysts wrote.
They concluded that expanding wireless broadband will be a boost for the economy because the service supports other innovations in areas such as business, healthcare and entertainment.
The economists found that the tax deal would reassign spectrum from the lowest value uses to the highest. They also found that unlicensed spectrum, which any company can use for free, can lead to new innovations and economic growth.
Unlicensed spectrum powers technologies such as Wi-Fi, garage door openers and remote controls. Allowing the FCC to set aside additional unlicensed spectrum was a victory for Democrats and tech companies including Google and Microsoft. Some Republicans, including Rep. Greg Walden (R-Ore.) who wrote the House version of the spectrum bill, characterized additional unlicensed spectrum as a taxpayer giveaway to big tech companies.
But the Council of Economic Advisers argued that a mix of unlicensed and licensed spectrum creates the best economic environment.
“Just as it was hard to imagine the explosive growth of Wi-Fi technology when the FCC first released unlicensed spectrum, it is difficult today to anticipate the variety of future technologies that may emerge if new spectrum is made available for unlicensed use,” the economists wrote. “Different bands of spectrum have different propagation characteristics, affecting the ease of transmitting signals over long distances or through walls. As a result, technologies that are not feasible today may become technically feasible and widely adopted if a portion of the newly released spectrum is made available for unlicensed use.”