Five years after calls for an examination of United States spectrum management policy, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has finally assigned a portion of the electromagnetic spectrum for testing new technologies.
The new Spectrum Sharing Innovation Test-Bed will occupy about 10 MHz of spectrum in the 470-512 MHz frequency band, which contains television broadcast systems and land mobile radio systems. The Commission says that this band will allow for the evaluation of adaptive radio equipment in the presence of additional radio services. Use of this spectrum will be limited to 10 megahertz for any given test.
Parties interested in conducting tests within the new Test-Bed spectrum will be required to obtain an experimental license, and to follow requirements set by the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA), which partnered with the FCC in the creation of the Test-Bed program.
The Test-Bed program is a direct results of the “Spectrum Policy Initiative,” established in an Executive Memorandum issued by President Bush in May 2003 to examine the legal and policy framework for spectrum management in the U.S. as part of a plan to better utilize spectrum resources.
Our readers can view the complete text of the Commission’s Notice regarding the spectrum Test-Bed program at this link.
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