New Agreement Between FCC and NTIA Could Improve Spectrum Coordination

On August 2, the FCC and NTIA announced the signing of a new memorandum of understanding (MOU) on spectrum coordination. Free State Foundation President Randolph May and I addressed the topic of an updated MOU in a February 2022 Perspectives from FSF Scholars titled "Congress Should Require Better Agency Coordination on Spectrum Policy" and in a contemporaneous short blog titled "Congress Should Set Parameters for Improved Interagency Spectrum Coordination." Also, my July 26 blog post acknowledged the Government Accountability Office's (GAO) recommendation that the Commission and NTIA update their agreement. 

The signing of the MOU by Chairwoman Rosenworcel and Assistant Secretary Davidson is welcome news. It is to be hoped that the new MOU's framework for regular meetings and information sharing between the FCC and NTIA on spectrum management will foster conditions that are more conducive to interagency cooperation. In the last few years, we have witnessed conflicts between the Commission and executive branch agencies on spectrum policy in regarding 5.9 GHz band, the 24 GHz band, the C-band, and the L-band. The updated MOU may help reduce those types of conflicts in the future. In particular, the new MOU's formal requirements that the FCC and NTIA give each other 20-day advance notice regarding interference concerns and final actions on spectrum matters may help stop dubious process-based attacks on Commission spectrum decisions like the ones made against the 2020 L-band Order.

But we won't know how useful the new MOU is until we see it put into operation. As I explained in a July 13 blog post, new agreements and formal procedures will not mean anything unless the agencies act in good faith to resolve their disputes – through the interagency working group and through the new MOU framework – rather than employing hyperbolic, if not false, attacks on contested spectrum proposals using outside channels.