One of President Obama's 10 year goals is to identify 500 MHz of spectrum for wireless broadband. The U.S. Commerce Department's National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) announced that it has identified 115 MHz of spectrum to be used for public and commercial broadband use.
The 115 MHz is contained in two spectrum bands and includes 100 MHz of federal radar bands which are in regions of the U.S. that are beyond the reach of radar currently used by the federal government. The other 15 MHz would be made available by by consolidating bands currently used for observation systems used for meteorology.
Spectrum availability and use has become a top priority for the NTIA because of the concern that emerging applications and devices will demand most newly found spectrum. Large carriers such as AT&T and Verizon have already moved to metered usage, and bill subscribers according to their actual usage. This spectrum announcement follows a recent proposal to free up spectrum by recapturing "white space" which exists from unused television broadband signals. Expect more announcements to be forthcoming as the NTIA works to find an additional 385 MHz to meet President Obama's 10 year goal.
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