repacking and inventorying federal spectrum...

315

REPACKING AND INVENTORYING

FEDERAL SPECTRUM: THE ROLE OF

FEDERAL EMPLOYEES

Sarah Oh†

Abstract

Federal radio engineers have the expertise and job description to

perform federal spectrum repacking. However, these federal employees have high costs of coordination due to administrative constraints. The inter-agency structure of federal spectrum management creates fragmentation on spectrum decisions. Radio engineers are disaggregated from their counterparts in other agencies and removed from policy decisions made by spectrum policy committees. Several proposals for institutions to manage federal spectrum have been advanced this year to bring federal spectrum into a modern organizational service. Institutional reform also requires a closer analysis of the role of federal employees who perform repacking and inventory of federal spectrum. Incorporating best practices from federal property management to federal radio spectrum reallocation may better align incentives of federal employees, particularly engineers who manage custom and localized federal radio equipment.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Introduction .................................................................................................... 316 I. Fragmentation of Federal Radio Engineers ......................................... 321

A. Repacking Costs and Expert Judgment ....................................... 321 B. Inter-Agency Fragmentation........................................................ 323 C. Knowledge Allocation in Expert Technical Advice .................... 326 D. Managing the Engineers .............................................................. 328 E. Features of Federal Spectrum Use ............................................... 332

II. Federal Property Managers and Federal Radio Engineers .................. 332 A. Incentives in Federal Property Management ............................... 333 B. Incentives in Federal Radio Management ................................... 334

III. Certification of Federal Radio Engineers ............................................ 335 A. Certification Procedures for Specialized Federal Employees ...... 336 B. Requirements for Federal Radio Engineers ................................. 337

† PhD Student, George Mason University, Department of Economics; JD 2009, George Mason

School of Law; BS 2004, Stanford University.

316 JOURNAL OF LAW, TECHNOLOGY & POLICY [Vol. 2015

Conclusion ...................................................................................................... 339

INTRODUCTION

This article addresses federal spectrum policy with a focus on the role of

federal employees who take inventories and reallocate federal radio uses.

Radio reallocation, or repacking, requires the evaluation, measurement,

sorting, procurement, and installation of radio equipment.1 Indeed, the

coordination problem for spectrum repacking is complex and handled by real

people. The inventory task is time and labor intensive in both the private and

public sector. In the public sector, federal engineers across nineteen agencies

assess and report on federal inventories, make repacking recommendations,

and consider multilateral agreements across domestic and international

stakeholders to draft spectrum transition plans.2 Federal employees are also

subject to policy and budget decisions at higher levels of review.3

Many radio technicians are stewards of decades-old equipment in unique

geographic locations across the United States with important governmental

functions. These engineers are tasked with filling out federal inventory sheets

to reflect radio device uses.4 Inventories are meant to record customized and

assorted equipment by function and topography.5 The Spectrum Relocation

Fund and the U.S. Department of Commerce National Telecommunications

and Information Administration (NTIA) Dispute Resolution framework

depends critically on the business judgment of radio engineers in the federal

agencies in this inventory task.6 In spectrum repacking efforts, institutional

reform needs to improve the job functions of these engineers who take

inventories, and the policy directors who interpret the inventories. Federal

1. FCC, Spectrum Analysis: Options for Broadcast Spectrum 16–17 (OBI Technical Working Paper

No. 3, 2000) [hereinafter “OBI Technical Working Paper”], https://transition.fcc.gov/national-broadband-

plan/spectrum-analysis-paper.pdf; Charles M. Davidson & Michael J. Santorelli, Seizing the Mobile Moment:

Spectrum Allocation Policy for the Wireless Broadband Century, 19 COMMLAW CONSPECTUS 1, 54 (2010).

2. NAT’L TELECOMMS. & INFO. ADMIN. (NTIA), U.S. DEP’T OF COMMERCE, MANUAL OF

REGULATIONS AND PROCEDURES FOR FEDERAL RADIO FREQUENCY MANAGEMENT 1–5, 1–12 (2014)

[hereinafter “REDBOOK”], http://www.ntia.doc.gov/files/ntia/publications/redbook/2014-05/1_14_5.pdf; CORP.

FOR PUB. BROAD., FACING THE SPECTRUM INCENTIVE AUCTION AND REPACKING PROCESS 8 (July 8, 2014)

[hereinafter “FACING THE SPECTRUM”], http://www.cpb.org/spectrum/reports/CPB-White-Paper-on-Spectrum-

Auction-and-Repacking-Process.pdf; Lawrence E. Strickling, Assistant Sec’y for Commc’n & Info., Nat’l

Telecomms. & Info. Admin., Testimony Before the Subcomm. on Commc’ns and Tech., Federal Government

Spectrum Use 5–6 (July 6, 2011), http://democrats.energycommerce.house.gov/sites/default/files/documents/

Testimony-Strickling-CT-The-Federal-Government-Spectrum-Use-2011-7-6.pdf.

3. The Mission and Structure of the Office of Management and Budget, WHITE HOUSE,

https://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/organization_mission (last visited Aug. 30, 2015) (describing various

budget and management oversights over federal agencies).

4. REDBOOK, supra note 2, at O-9 to O-14, http://www.ntia.doc.gov/files/ntia/publications/redbook/

2014-05/O_14_5.pdf.

5. RADIO SPECTRUM INVENTORY ACT, H.R. REP. NO. 111–462 (2010); MICHAEL CALABRESE ET AL.,

NAT’L TELECOMMS. & INFO. ADMIN. (NTIA), REPORT FROM THE SPECTRUM INVENTORY WORKING GROUP OF

THE COMMERCE SPECTRUM MANAGEMENT ADVISORY COMMITTEE 5–7 (2010), http://www.ntia.doc.gov/files/

ntia/publications/csmac_siwg_document_0525clean.pdf.

6. Relocation of and Spectrum Sharing by Federal Government Stations—Technical Panel and

Dispute Resolution Boards, 78 Fed. Reg. 5310, 5311 (Jan. 25, 2013), http://www.ntia.doc.gov/federal-register-

notice/2013/spectrum-relocation-final-rule-technical-panel-and-dispute-resolution-b.

No. 2] THE ROLE OF FEDERAL EMPLOYEES 317

employees who are asked to repack the federal spectrum have remarked that

ten years may not be enough time for reallocation efforts, with limited budget

resources and evaluation costs.7

Repacking federal spectrum is similar to repacking spectrum in the

private sector. Repacking radios, or spectrum reallocation, is often needed to

make room for new spectrum uses.8 This repacking or reallocation effort is not

cost-free in terms of human capital or fixed capital.9 Indeed, repacking often

requires manual and custom attention on a radio-by-radio basis.10

Topography

and technology are highly non-standard, with costs of time and effort that rise

with analysis of each custom device.11

Status quo allocations persist due to

costs of assessing and reorganizing equipment.12

The reorganization effort is

not a trivial endeavor, since sorting and valuation of radios by function occurs

within a fragmented inter-agency structure of federal spectrum management.13

Yet, repacking has the potential to generate multipliers of economic welfare

gains through more efficient use of spectrum.14

Radio repacking is similar to real property management in many ways.

Radios can be replaced, transferred, or modified, yet only in regard to local and

custom conditions.15

This decision is best performed by radio engineers with

technical and local judgment.16

Efforts by policymakers to legislate

interference standards, receiver standards, and other technical boundaries are

attempts to generalize rules.17

However, customized and non-standard

equipment uses can make these rules unworkable very quickly, once engineers

take into account local conditions and conflicts among neighboring spectrum

7. See U.S. DEP’T OF INTERIOR, 1755–1850 MHZ COMPARABLE BAND ANALYSIS, PHASE III—FINAL

REPORT 3, http://www.ntia.doc.gov/files/ntia/publications/doi_2.pdf (“However, our resources and staffing are

limited and further DOI work and analysis to meet the NTIA 10-Year Plan is dependent on availability of

funds for continued research and RF engineering analysis moving forward with other candidate spectrum

bands. Further, the going forward work is dependent on availability of funds to perform a more thorough up-

front technical and engineering analysis.”).

8. FACING THE SPECTRUM, supra note 2, at 6; Karen R. Sprung, Broadcast v. Broadband? A Survey of

the Reallocation of Broadcast Spectrum for Wireless Broadband, MEDIA L. & POL’Y 238, 242 (2010).

9. William Lehr & J. Armand Musey, Right-Sizing Broadband Spectrum Auction Licenses: The Case

for Smaller Geographic License Areas in the TV Broadcast Incentive Auction, 37 HASTINGS COMM. & ENT.

L.J. 231, 238 (2015) (“These repacking costs alone are estimated to be $1.75 billion.”).

10. OBI Technical Working Paper, supra note 1, at 24.

11. Strickling, supra note 2, at 7.

12. Ellen P. Goodman, Spectrum Rights in the Telecosm to Come, 41 SAN DIEGO L. REV. 269, 313

(2004); Promoting Spectrum Sharing in the Wireless Broadband Era, NAT’L TELECOMMS. & INFO. ADMIN.

(Jan. 9, 2015), http://www.ntia.doc.gov/blog/2015/promoting-spectrum-sharing-wireless-broadband-era.

13. REDBOOK, supra note 2, at 15, 1–12.

14. NAT’L TELECOMMS. & INFO. ADMIN., PROMOTING SPECTRUM SHARING IN THE WIRELESS

BROADBAND ERA (Jan. 9, 2015); Jeffrey A. Eisenach, Spectrum Reallocation and the National Broadband

Plan, 64 FED. COMM. L.J. 87, 107 (2011).

15. Thomas W. Hazlett, A Law & Economics Approach to Spectrum Property Rights: A Response to

Weiser and Hatfield, 15 GEO. MASON L. REV. 975, 979 (2008).

16. Richard Bennett, Technical Principles of Spectrum Allocation, TPRC 41: The 41st Research

Conference on Communication, Information and Internet Policy 2013, http://ssrn.com/abstract=2240625.

17. See, e.g., R. Paul Margie, Can You Hear Me Now? Getting Better Reception from the FCC’s

Spectrum Policy, 2004 STAN. TECH. L. REV. 5, 26 (2004) (“While the Commission permits ‘interference’ in

most cases, it generally prohibits ‘harmful interference’ . . . and the harmful interference standard allows the

FCC the flexibility to know interference when it sees it. This flexibility is an important asset of the standard in

these types of cases, much like the flexibility of the antitrust standard and the obscenity standard is an asset for

other types of disputes.”).


users.18

Federal spectrum decisions that give rise to inter-agency conflicts are

delegated to working groups with technical expertise for this reason.19

Other

obstacles limit federal spectrum repacking efforts.20

Reformers find that federal spectrum is more encumbered than private

spectrum.21

Mechanisms that may be feasible for commercial spectrum are

often considered underdeveloped for federal spectrum, such as overlay

licenses,22

incentive auctions,23

and harm claim thresholds.24

One proposal to

improve federal reallocation is to directly increase decision-making power25

as

cited in a recent request for information on federal agency incentives.26

Another mechanism is to increase repacking authority is through specialized

applications of market design such as incentive auctions for federal spectrum.27

In one particular proposal, federal agencies would receive proceeds from

commercial auctions of federal spectrum to incentivize agencies to find and

relinquish spectrum holdings.28

18. Establishment of an Interference Temperature Metric to Quantify and Manage Interference, ET

Docket No. 03-237, (FCC May 4, 2007) (order), http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/FCC-07-

78A1.pdf (interference temperature proceeding); Interference Immunity Performance Specifications for Radio

Receivers, ET Docket No. 03-65, (FCC May 4, 2007) (order), http://apps.fcc.gov/ecfs/document/view?

(receiver standards proceeding); FCC, Spectrum Policy Task Force: Report, ET Docket No. 02-135 (Nov.

2002), http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DOC-228542A1.pdf (recommending interference

temperature and receiver standards proceedings).

19. COMMERCE SPECTRUM MGMT. ADVISORY COMM. (CSMAC), SPECTRUM MANAGEMENT

IMPROVEMENTS WORKING GROUP REPLY TO MARCH 1, 2012 NTIA RESPONSE (2012),

http://www.ntia.doc.gov/files/ntia/publications/sm_improvements_response_to_ntia_052512_draft_-_802011_

1.pdf; Agenda for 11/05/2013 Innovative Spectrum Sharing Technology Day, Co-hosted by U.S. Commerce

Dep’t’s Nat’l Telecomms. & Info. Admin. (NTIA) and Nat’l Inst. of Standards & Tech. (NIST) (Nov. 5,

2013), http://www.ntia.doc.gov/other-publication/2013/agenda- 11052013-innovative-spectrum-sharing-

technology-day; NAT’L SCI. FOUND., ENHANCING ACCESS TO THE RADIO SPECTRUM (EARS), PROGRAM

SOLICITATION NSF 14-529, http://www.nsf.gov/pubs/2014/nsf14529/nsf14529.pdf; JENNIFER BERNHARD ET

AL., NAT’L SCI. FOUND., WORKSHOP ON ENHANCING ACCESS TO THE RADIO SPECTRUM (Aug. 4–6, 2010),

http://www.nsf.gov/mps/ast/ears_workshop_final_report_ce_final_corr.pdf.

20. See e.g., Brent Skorup, Reclaiming Federal Spectrum: Proposals and Recommendations, 15

COLUM. SCI. & TECH. L. REV. 90, 113 (2013) (discussing political obstacles).

21. Eisenach, supra note 14, at 130–31.

22. THOMAS W. HAZLETT, UNLEASHING THE DTV BAND A PROPOSAL FOR AN OVERLAY AUCTION, FCC

(Dec. 18, 2009), http://mason.gmu.edu/~thazlett/pubs/NBP_PublicNotice26_DTVBand.pdf; see generally THE

NETWORKING AND INFO. TECH. RES. AND DEV. (NITRD) PROGRAM, WIRELESS SPECTRUM RESEARCH AND

DEVELOPMENT (WSRD) WORKSHOP IV, PROMOTING ECONOMIC EFFICIENCY IN SPECTRUM USE: THE

ECONOMIC AND POL’Y R&D AGENDA, http://iep.gmu.edu/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/CSAIL-Program-April-

2013.pdf (providing background on the federal spectrum and an explanation of the workshop).

23. PAUL MILGROM, ET AL., INCENTIVE AUCTION RULES OPTION AND DISCUSSION (Sept. 12, 2012),

http://transition.fcc.gov/Daily_Releases/Daily_Business/2012/db1002/FCC-12-118A2.pdf.

24. J. PIERRE DE VRIES & PHILIP J. WEISER, THE HAMILTON PROJECT, UNLOCKING SPECTRUM VALUE

THROUGH IMPROVED ALLOCATION ASSIGNMENT, AND ADJUDICATION OF SPECTRUM RIGHTS (Mar. 2014),

http://www.hamiltonproject.org/files/downloads_and_links/THP_DeVries-WeiserDiscPaper.pdf.

25. KAREN D. GORDON, ET AL., IDA SCI. AND TECH. POLICY INST., A REVIEW OF APPROACHES TO

SHARING OR RELINQUISHING AGENCY-ASSIGNED SPECTRUM, IDA PAPER P-5102 (Jan. 2014),

https://www.ida.org/upload/stpi/pdfs/p5102final.pdf.

26. OFFICE OF SCI. AND TECH. POLICY, EXEC. OFFICE OF THE PRESIDENT, NOTICE OF REQUEST FOR

INFORMATION (Feb. 18, 2014), https://www.federalregister.gov/articles/2014/02/18/2014-03413/spectrum-

policy; OFFICE OF THE PRESS SEC’Y, EXEC. OFFICE OF THE PRESIDENT, PRESIDENTIAL MEMORANDUM—

EXPANDING AMERICA’S LEADERSHIP IN WIRELESS INNOVATION (June 14, 2013), http://www.whitehouse.gov/

the-press-office/2013/06/14/presidential-memorandum-expanding-americas-leadership-wireless-innovatio.

27. Federal Spectrum Incentive Act of 2013, H.R. 3674, 113th Cong. (2013).

28. Id.


Statutory mandates are not all alike, however, and if poorly designed they

can fail to result in productive outcomes. The Spectrum Relocation Fund is an

example of an effort to speed federal spectrum reallocation.29

The Spectrum

Relocation Fund was introduced in 2002 by the NTIA with a final rulemaking

in 2013 to distribute a $1 billion fund from the Office of Management and

Budget to assist in the inventory of radios and transfer plans.30

Yet, between

2002 and 2013, the American taxpayer has seen little progress in federal

relocation efforts.31

The AWS-3 auction will test the transfer plan mechanism

in 2015.32

Institutional reform is naturally a next step to consider in federal spectrum

policy. A review of institutional review starts with the NTIA, created in 1978

for the purpose of managing federal spectrum properties.33

This institution

was placed within the Department of Commerce.34

As noted by IEEE-USA,

radio repacking efforts depend on expert judgment by engineering staff in

independent agencies.35

NTIA was created in an effort to consolidate expert

judgment.36

With coordination through the NTIA, federal employees in the

nineteen agencies manage equipment and agency directives.37

Whether NTIA

has effectively and by which metrics, is able to facilitate inter-agency

allocation of federal resources is an open question. That NTIA has authority to

promulgate consensus among the agencies does not mean that it can reach

unanimous agreement or equitable solutions across nineteen agencies.38

Research on the NTIA’s track record for federal spectrum resource

management could advance the literature in this area of spectrum policy.

Recently in 2014, due to demand for federal spectrum reform, several

new reorganization proposals have been advanced.39

The creation of a

29. Id.

30. NAT’L TELECOMMS. & INFO. ADMIN., U.S. DEP’T OF COMMERCE, SPECTRUM RELOCATION FINAL

RULE ON TECHNICAL PANEL AND DISPUTE RESOLUTION BOARDS, Docket No. 120620177-2445-02 (Jan. 25,

2013), http://www.ntia.doc.gov/federal-register-notice/2013/spectrum-relocation-final-rule-technical-panel-

and-dispute-resolution-b.

31. U.S. DEP’T OF COMMERCE, RELOCATION OF FEDERAL RADIO SYSTEMS FROM THE 1710–1755 MHZ

SPECTRUM BAND (Mar. 2014) http://www.ntia.doc.gov/files/ntia/publications/ntia_seventh_annual_report_to_

congress_on_the_1710-1755_mhz_relocation_3-28-14.pdf.

32. See American Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012, H.R. 8, 112th Cong. (2013) (noting that the deadline of

2015 for AWS-3 auction was statutorily mandated through the Tax Relief Act of 2012).

33. NAT’L TELECOMMS. & INFO. ADMIN., U.S. DEP’T OF COMMERCE, A SHORT HISTORY OF NTIA,

http://www.ntia.doc.gov/legacy/opadhome/history.html [hereinafter “A SHORT HISTORY OF NTIA”].

34. Id.

35. IEEE USA, POSITION STATEMENT: IMPROVING U.S. SPECTRUM POLICY DELIBERATIONS IN THE

PERIOD 2013–2017 (2012), https://www.ieeeusa.org/policy/positions/SpectrumPoilcy1112.pdf; IEEE-USA

COMMITTEE ON COMMS. POLICY, CLARIFYING HARMFUL INTERFERENCE WILL FACILITATE WIRELESS

INNOVATION, A WHITE PAPER, http://www.ieeeusa.org/policy/whitepapers/IEEEUSAWP-HarmfulInterference

0712.pdf.

36. A SHORT HISTORY OF NTIA, supra note 33.

37. See Lawrence E. Strickling, NTIA Employees Win Departmental Award for Outstanding Work,

NAT’L TELECOMMS. & INFO. ADMIN., U.S. DEP’T OF COMMERCE (Jan. 27, 2015), http://www.ntia.doc.gov/

blog/2015/ntia-employees-win-departmental-awards-outstanding-work (describing the roles of the NTIA

employees who received an award).

38. About NTIA, NAT’L TELECOMMS. & INFO. ADMIN., U.S. DEP’T OF COMMERCE,

http://www.ntia.doc.gov/about (last visited Nov. 5, 2015).

39. Richard Bennett, Am. Enter. Inst., A Blueprint for a Federal Spectrum Service: A Very Rough

Draft (2014), http://www.techpolicydaily.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/Blueprint-for-a-Federal-Spectrum-


government spectrum ownership corporation (GSOC) could act similar to the

Government Services Administration (GSA), but focused on federal

spectrum.40

The creation of a Federal Spectrum Service could also impose a

mandate to shrink the spectrum footprint across the agencies.41

Reform

proposals have also included a zero-base federal spectrum registry,42

spectrum

fees,43

federal shared use,44

and funding for a more detailed spectrum

inventory.45

Presidential memoranda drive these reform proposals, with noble

goals set for the NTIA to release 500 MHz of federal spectrum to the

commercial sector.46

These initiatives, while well-meaning and ambitious,

have resulted in incremental progress in 1999, 2010, and 2014.47

The NTIA has been tasked with inventorying, repacking, and releasing

500 MHz of federal spectrum to the commercial sector by several different

presidential administrations.48

However, executing on these lofty goals has

been far more difficult than the policy recommendations.49

Each spectrum

band requires extensive analysis and inter-agency dispute resolution before

repacking can occur.50

The process has been slow and arduous, which

motivates ongoing initiatives for reform.51

This article considers federal spectrum repacking efforts with a focus on

the federal employee who makes inventory decisions at the agency level.

Section I reviews the repacking task with a focus on federal radio engineers

within the federal agencies. Section II considers federal property management

and the use of incentives in the management of resources other than radio

Service.pdf.

40. Letter from Thomas M. Lenard & Lawrence J. White, President, Tech. Policy Inst., Professor of

Econ., NYU Stern School of Business, to Office of Science and Technology Policy, Attention Tom Power,

(Mar. 20, 2014), https://www.techpolicyinstitute.org/files/lenard_white_ostp_gsoc.pdf.

41. Bennett, supra note 39 (Document Presented at the Information Economy Project Conference on

Spectrum Beyond Incentive Auctions, Apr. 25, 2014, National Press Club, Washington, D.C.,

http://iep.gmu.edu/conference-spectrum-beyond-incentive-auctions/.).

42. Harold Feld & Gregory Rose, Breaking the Logjam: Creating Sustainable Spectrum Access

Through Federal Secondary Markets, Public Knowledge White Paper, http://www.publicknowledge.org/

pdf/pk-spectrum-fed-secondary-markets-whitepaper.pdf.

43. Brent Skorup, Reclaiming Federal Spectrum: Proposals and Recommendations, 15 COLUM. SCI. &

TECH. L. REV. 90, 110–11 (2012), http://stlr.org/download/volumes/volume15/Skorup.pdf.

44. PRESIDENT’S COUNCIL OF ADVISORS ON SCI. AND TECH., REPORT TO THE PRESIDENT, REALIZING

THE FULL POTENTIAL OF GOVERNMENT-HELD SPECTRUM TO SPUR ECONOMIC GROWTH 6 (July 2012)

[hereinafter “PCAST Report 2012”], http://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/microsites/ostp/pcast_

spectrum_report_final_july_20_2012.pdf.

45. Id. at xi.

46. Id. at v.

47. NAT’L TELECOMMS. & INFO. ADMIN., Plan and Timetable to Make Available 500 Megahertz of

Spectrum for Wireless Broadband, U.S. DEP’T OF COMM. 24 (Oct. 2010) [hereinafter “Plan and Timetable”],

http://www.ntia.doc.gov/files/ntia/publications/tenyearplan_11152010.pdf; NAT’L TELECOMMS. & INFO.

ADMIN., An Assessment of the Near-Term Viability of Accommodating Wireless Broadband Systems in the

1675–1710 MHz, 1755–1780 MHz, 3500–3650 MHz, and 4200–4220 MHz, 4380–4400 MHz Bands, U.S.

DEP’T OF COM. 1–4 (Oct. 2010) [hereinafter “Assessment”], http://www.ntia.doc.gov/files/ntia/publications/

fasttrackevaluation_11152010.pdf.

48. Plan and Timetable, supra note 47, at ii.

49. U.S. GOV’T ACCOUNTABILITY OFFICE, GAO-11-352, SPECTRUM MANAGEMENT: NITA PLANNING

AND PROCESSES NEED STRENGTHENING TO PROMOTE THE EFFICIENT USE OF SPECTRUM BY FEDERAL AGENCIES

1–4 (Apr. 2011).

50. Id. at 1–12.

51. Id.


spectrum. Section III explores whether certification of a class of federal radio

engineers as trusted agents could mitigate risk and facilitate federal spectrum

reallocation.

I. FRAGMENTATION OF FEDERAL RADIO ENGINEERS

Spectrum repacking involves coordination by federal radio engineers

from many independent agencies.52

However, spectrum planning committees

and subcommittees often must make trade-offs between broad policy and

budgetary goals with specific, individualized decisions on custom radio

equipment.53

In spectrum management, a large number of decisions are

fragmented across engineers, spectrum policy representatives, and agency

directors.54

A. Repacking Costs and Expert Judgment

Spectrum inventory and relocation planning occurs within each agency by

their own radio engineers.55

These engineers operate equipment in local

conditions, see Figure 1.56

Engineers advise on relocation decisions for each

federal radio in operation by their agency.57

The internal decision process

occurs independently in each of the 19 agencies.58

The effort to make a

decision for each radio, whether and where to relocate its operating parameters

involves time in evaluation, analysis, and equipment replacement. Just as with

other inventory or restructuring efforts, the diagnostic and assessment process

is closely related to the ultimate decision for resource use.

Some understanding of the inventory management literature is integral to

understanding the spectrum reallocation process. Inventory assessment is a

time-intensive, detail-oriented task which has generated sophisticated statistics

research.59

Inventory assessment is a time-intensive, detail-oriented task which

has generated sophisticated statistics research.60

The most computationally-

intensive aspects of inventory control are decisions on whether to stock or not

stock products in demand.61

In traditional logistics decisions, a competitive

52. Id. at 18.

53. Id. at 9–16. The structural perspective on innovation policy within the federal government and by

the federal government is related to this article in scope and application. Government policy has the ability to

facilitate or stifle innovation cycles. See generally Stuart Minor Benjamin & Arti K. Rai, Fixing Innovation

Policy: A Structural Perspective, 77 GEO. WASH. L. REV. 1–88 (2008) (describing how policies and

innovations should be structured).

54. GAO-11-352, supra note 49, at 9–16.

55. Id.

56. Id. at 14.

57. Id. at 13–19.

58. Id.

59. Inventory theory, inventory control and management is an important area of the operations research

literature. See generally PAUL A. JENSEN & JONATHAN F. BARD, OPERATIONS RESEARCH MODELS AND

METHODS (Wayne Anderson, et al. eds., 2003) [hereinafter “JENSEN & BARD”].

60. See generally id. (discussing inventory theory, inventory control, and management as significant

areas of the operations research literature).

61. See generally Erhan Bayraktar & Michael Ludkovski, Inventory Management with Partially

Observed Nonstationary Demand, 176 ANNALS OF OPERATIONS RES. 7, 7–39 (2010) (applying “a continuous-


decision exists for how a firm should respond to unknown future demand

without wasting warehouse space with spare parts or excess supply.62

Traditional inventory control models have developed in the supply chain

management and logistics literature in the private sector.63

This inventory control process is not new to the federal government for

spectrum assessment. The Department of Interior recently listed its repacking

cost estimates, as $45 million for the U.S. Geological Survey, with 15 sites on

26 radio frequency assignments with 18 radios in Central California and 8

radios in Southern California for microwave system radios for the Northern

California Seismic Network and Southern California Seismic Network, and $1

million for National Park Service (NPS) video surveillance for transmitters on

two aircraft, on one radio frequency assignment.64

For each radio device,

repacking costs include local conditions and local functions. Federal agencies

have been compiling repacking cost estimates, albeit with federal timelines and

administrative constraints.

Indeed, there are high costs in time and human capital to reorganize

federal spectrum use. This inventory process occurs one customized radio

hardware device at a time, by teams of federal radio engineers, within each

agency.65

The fixed costs of reorganizing existing allocations seem to be

underappreciated in the literature. Compare for example, the process of

phasing out one particular singular radio technology, the broadcast analog

television.

Band clearing costs for analog television devices were apparent in the

digital television transition. The NTIA/DOC and FCC led the analog to digital

television transition, which took them over twenty years to decide, and only

with statutory authority from Congress.66

The technology transition at the time

was a rather straightforward mandate, with repacking subsidies of $1.5

billion.67

For this technology upgrade decision, a calculation and tradeoff was

reached with projected fixed costs of equipment change.68

The policymakers

who decided on the transition from digital to analog only had one type of radio

to repack.69

On the federal spectrum, many different types of radio hardware

time model for inventory management with Markov modulated non-stationary demands”).

62. See JENSEN & BARD, supra note 59, at 2 (discussing lumpy demand, spare parts, and other uncertain

resource needs are studied in the operations research literature); Hau L. Lee & Corey Billington, Management

Supply Chain Inventory: Pitfalls and Opportunities, 33 MIT SLOAN MGMT. REV. 65 (1992) (citing early work

on supply chain management).

63. See generally Brent D. Williams & Travis Tokar, A Review of Inventory Management Research in

Major Logistics Journals: Themes and Future Directions, 19 INT’L J. OF LOGISTICS MGMT. 212, 232 (2008)

(articulating themes present in the major logistics journals).

64. U.S. DEP’T OF THE INTERIOR, 1755–1850 MHz COMPARABLE BAND ANALYSIS: PHASE III—FINAL

REPORT (2011).

65. U.S. GOV’T ACCOUNTABILITY OFFICE, GAO-02-447G, EXECUTIVE GUIDE: BEST PRACTICES IN

ACHIEVING CONSISTENT, ACCURATE PHYSICAL COUNTS OF INVENTORY AND RELATED PROPERTY (2002).

66. U.S. GOV’T ACCOUNTABILITY OFFICE, GAO-08-510, DIGITAL TELEVISION TRANSITION: MAJORITY

OF BROADCASTERS ARE PREPARED FOR THE DTV TRANSITION, BUT SOME TECHNICAL AND COORDINATION

ISSUES REMAIN (2008) [hereinafter “BROADCASTERS”].

67. U.S. GOV’T ACCOUNTABILITY OFFICE, GAO-08-43, DIGITAL TELEVISION TRANSITION: INCREASED

FEDERAL PLANNING AND RISK MANAGEMENT COULD FURTHER FACILITATE THE DTV TRANSITION (2007).

68. Id. at 11.

69. Id.


devices are used for many types of uses. The cost of assessing and clearing

multiple different types of radios increases from there.

The logical solution, then would be to harness market mechanisms to

handle reallocation decisions across agencies and types of radios. In an

intermediate step, the broadcast TV band is currently being auctioned by the

FCC in an incentive auction.70

This one type of radio technology is used by

many private and independent television stations.71

There is a repacking

subsidy proposed of $1.75 billion for television stations, similar to the DTV

converter box transition.72

The incentive auction format is designed to elicit

valuations in reverse and forward components73

based on advanced market

design and sorting theory.74

The incentive auction process is meant to provide

a market platform to match buyers and sellers of high-value stations in large

television markets with wireless carriers who can offer high prices in urban

areas.75

Repacking examples highlight the nature of inventory assessment and

repacking decisions that occur within agencies by their radio engineers. Along

with repacking of custom equipment, federal engineers are encumbered by

inter-agency constraints.

B. Inter-Agency Fragmentation

Federal spectrum management generates combinations of bilateral and

multilateral meetings across nineteen agencies to resolve boundary conflicts.76

The Spectrum Relocation Fund and NTIA rulemaking on Dispute Resolution

rules 2013 has provided a way forward for dispute resolution of spectrum

conflicts,77

but inter-agency challenges persist. The GAO in 200478

conducted

interviews of federal spectrum managers and observed deficiencies in process,

also noted in the IDA 2014 report.79

When agency spectrum planning groups

reach a decision point that they cannot resolve, the issue frequently is a

technical matter, which is then deferred to a technical working group.80

The

70. BROADCASTERS, supra note 66, at 1.

71. Joe Flint, TV Broadcasters Await Spectrum Valuations From FCC: Auction Could Bring In $45

Billion; Some Station Owners Anticipate High Valuations, WALL ST. J. (Oct. 2, 2014), http://www.wsj.com/

articles/tv-broadcasters-await-spectrum-valuations-from-fcc-1412291991.

72. Information Collection Being Reviewed by the Federal Communications Commission Under

Delegated Authority, 79 Fed. Reg. 40141 (Apr. 1, 2014).

73. MILGROM, supra note 23, at 7.

74. In the Matter of Amendment of the Commission's Rules with Regard to Commercial Operations in

the 1695–1710 Mhz, 1755–1780 Mhz, & 2155–2180 Mhz Bands, 29 F.C.C. Rcd. 4610, 4611 (2014).

75. Id.

76. Press Release, Nat’l Telecomms. & Info. Admin., The Use of 60 GHz (a.k.a. WiGig) Unlicensed

Wireless Technology In Consumer Devices, Such As Laptop PCs And Tablets, On-board In-flight Aircraft

(June 2, 2015), http://www.ntia.doc.gov/page/interdepartment-radio-advisory-committee-irac.

77. Spectrum Relocation Final Rule, 78 Fed. Reg. 5310 (Jan. 25, 2013) (to be codified at 47 C.F.R. pt.

301).

78. U.S. GOV’T ACCOUNTABILITY OFFICE, GAO-04-1028, INTERDEPARTMENT RADIO ADVISORY

COMMITTEE: IRAC REPRESENTATIVES EFFECTIVELY COORDINATE FEDERAL SPECTRUM BUT LACK SENIORITY

TO ADVISE ON CONTENTIOUS POLICY ISSUES (2004) [hereinafter “GAO-04-1028”].

79. GORDON, supra note 25, at 46.

80. Id. at 15.


NTIA/IRAC/CSMAC

Spectrum

Policy

Point of

Contact

Radio Engineer

OMB Spectrum Relocation Fund

Agency

Relocation

Decisions

Equipment

Executive Office of the President/OSTP/PCAST

technical working group then meets to answer an important question of

interference, yet often refers the question of administrative priority back to the

inter-agency spectrum planning group.81

Figure 1. Radio Engineers in Nineteen Federal Agencies

The Interdepartment Radio Advisory Committee (IRAC) has a main

committee with six subcommittees and several technical working groups.82

IRAC was created in 1922 to advise the Assistant Secretary of Commerce on

spectrum assignments.83

IRAC includes one representative from each of

nineteen agencies, plus an acting chairman, agency vice chairman, vice

chairman, and executive secretary.84

Each agency has a spectrum management

division representative who is likely not an engineer, but an attorney from a

policy planning office.85

This main committee cannot address priorities such as emergency plans

81. GAO-04-1028, supra note 78, at 22.

82. Interdepartment Radio Advisory Committee (IRAC) Announcement of Public Presentation to the

IRAC on the Use of 60 GHz (a.k.a. WiGig) unlicensed wireless technology in consumer devices, such as laptop

PCs and tablets, on-board in-flight aircraft, NAT’L TELECOMMS. & INFO. ADMIN. (June 2, 2015, 1:00 PM),

http://www.ntia.doc.gov/page/interdepartment-radio-advisory-committee-irac.

83. GAO-04-1028, supra note 78, at 4.

Interdepartment Radio Advisory Committee (IRAC) Membership List, NAT’L TELECOMMS. & INFO. ADMIN.

(2014) [hereinafter “IRAC Membership List”], http://www.ntia.doc.gov/files/ntia/publications/irac_

membership_list_01-28-14.pdf.

85. Id.


or technical matters, so IRAC subcommittees advise the main committee on

particular priorities, fragmenting the repacking decision further.86

IRAC does

not have authority to change frequency assignments, but serves in an advisory

capacity, and “is not the Executive Branch decision body on spectrum

management issues.”87

The authority to manage or coordinate spectrum use is

held by senior level federal agencies executives.88

NTIA was created in 1978 with the intent to improve IRAC’s

coordination task and inter-agency prioritization.89

IRAC spectrum relocation

decisions exceeded the resources of the White House Office of Science and

Technology Policy, and the Department of Commerce absorbed the role by

creating the NTIA.90

Thus, the NTIA manages a Redbook manual that lists

federal radio management rules.91

Radio engineers who comply with the

Redbook are still located within agencies and report to agency representatives

to the IRAC.92

Figure 1 shows where radio engineers are disaggregated from

spectrum management. Federal radio engineers recommend radio relocation

plans to their respective agency representatives, who inform IRAC

subcommittees, who advise the NTIA.93

Local bottlenecks in repacking decisions are seen in the 1710–1850 MHz

relocation effort. The Tax Relief Act required the Commerce Department to

submit a progress report by February 2013 for spectrum auction of AWS-3 by

February 2015.94

The NTIA rulemaking for the spectrum relocation dispute

resolution was finalized in June 2013 and CSMAC working group reports were

published in September 2013.95

Technical expertise has been collected in the

Policy and Plans Steering Group (PPSG) with its own working group Spectrum

Working Group (SWG). When it comes to federal radio repacking, the nature

of the relocation task is manual, detail-oriented, and non-standardized.96

In

Annex O, each radio is inventoried and either publicly deliberated or sealed in

classified documents.97

Equipment relocations require system-by-system analysis in the 1710–

1755 MHz band, a closely watched case study in federal radio repacking.98

86. GAO-04-1028, supra note 78, at 7, 22.

87. REDBOOK, supra note 2.

88. Id.

89. Id.

90. A SHORT HISTORY OF NTIA, supra note 33.


92. Id.

93. See NASA LANGLEY RESEARCH CENTER, RADIO FREQUENCY SPECTRUM MANAGEMENT (2004)

http://lms.larc.nasa.gov/admin/public_docs/LPR2570-5.pdf (explaining manager’s authority are identified by

individual agencies and coordinate with IRAC, they do not coordinate with each other).

94. Middle Class Tax Relief and Job Creation Act of 2012, Pub. L. No. 112–96, 126 Stat. 156 (2012).

95. CSMAC Meetings, NAT’L TELECOMMS. & INFO. ADMIN., http://www.ntia.doc.gov/meetings/

CSMAC (last visited Sept. 1, 2015).

96. NAT’L TELECOMMS. & INFO. ADMIN., ANNEX O: RELOCATION OR SHARING BY FEDERAL

GOVERNMENT STATION IN SUPPORT OF REALLOCATION (2013), http://www.ntia.doc.gov/files/ntia/publications/

redbook/2013/O_13.pdf [hereinafter “ANNEX O”].

97. Id.

98. See generally Thomas W. Hazlett & Evan T. Leo, The Case for Liberal Spectrum Licenses: A

Technical and Economic Perspective, 26 BERKELEY TECH. L.J. 1037 (2011) (providing economic and

technical analysis in the case of 1710–1755 MHz band). See also Coleman Bazelon, The Economic Basis of


Agency points of contact include seventeen administrative level federal

employees mostly based in D.C.99

For the 1755–1850 MHz band alone, the

CSMAC in 2011 listed relocation of dozens of highly customized radios, from

tactical radio relay, satellite, precision guided munitions, air combat training

(ACTS), video surveillance, aeronautical mobile telemetry (AMT), UAVs and

other airborne platforms.100

From the relocation efforts, NTIA developed

standardized forms for the agency representatives in 2002 through 2013 to file

transition reports with ground-level reporting.101

To assist in the technical

effort, the NTIA Office of Spectrum Management offers Spectrum

Management Training Classes, to train policymakers and federal radio

engineers to make these spectrum decisions.102

C. Knowledge Allocation in Expert Technical Advice

IRAC collects expert technical advice through technical working groups,

in the form of subcommittees and ad hoc groups. These subcommittees were

created through rulemaking as the Emergency Planning Subcommittee,103

Frequency Assignment Subcommittee,104

Radio Conference Subcommittee,105

Spectrum Planning Subcommittee,106

Space Systems Subcommittee,107

Technical Subcommittee,108

with five Ad Hoc groups.109

The Chairman, Vice

Chairman, and Secretary who are Department of Commerce employees are

listed for each subcommittee. Members of the subcommittees, meeting times

and meeting notes are not readily accessible on the NTIA website. The NTIA

provides some details on the operation of the Frequency Assignment

Spectrum Value: Pairing AWS-3 with the 1755 MHz Band is More Valuable than Pairing it with Frequencies

from the 1690 MHz Band, THE BRATTLE GROUP, INC. (Apr. 11, 2011), http://www.brattle.com/system/

publications/pdfs/000/004/679/original/The_Economic_Basis_of_Spectrum_Value_-_Pairing_AWS-3_Baze

lon_Apr_11_2011.pdf?1378772119 (analyzing the 1710–1755 band case from the economic perspective).

99. 1710–1755 MHz Relocation Agency Points of Contact, NAT’L TELECOMMS. & INFO. ADMIN.

[hereinafter “NTIA Points of Contact”], http://www.ntia.doc.gov/files/ntia/publications/pointsofcontact_

2012_12_01.pdf (last visited Sept. 1, 2015).

100. Search for 500 MHz Working Group, NAT’L TELECOMMS. & INFO. ADMIN. [hereinafter “NTIA

CSMAC Search”], http://www.ntia.doc.gov/files/ntia/publications/csmac_search_1755-1850_recommend

ations_final.pdf. (last visited Sept. 1, 2015).

101. ANNEX O, supra, note 96, at O-13.

102. Spectrum Management Training Course, NAT’L TELECOMMS. & INFO. ADMIN, http://www.

ntia.doc.gov/spectrumtraining/spectrum-management-training-course (last visited Sept. 1, 2015).

103. Emergency Planning Subcomm. (EPS), NAT’L TELECOMMS. & INFO. ADMIN., http://www.

ntia.doc.gov/page/emergency-planning-subcommittee-eps (last visited Sept. 1, 2015) [hereinafter “NTIA

EPS”].

104. Frequency Assignment Subcomm. (FAS), NAT’L TELECOMMS. & INFO. ADMIN.,

http://www.ntia.doc.gov/page/frequency-assignment-subcommittee-fas (last visited Sept. 1, 2015) [hereinafter

“NTIA FAS”].

105. Radio Conference Subcomm. (RCS), NAT’L TELECOMMS. & INFO. ADMIN., http://www.

ntia.doc.gov/page/radio-conference-subcommittee-rcs (last visited Sept. 1, 2015) [hereinafter “NTIA RCS”].

106. Spectrum Planning Subcomm. (SPS), NAT’L TELECOMMS. & INFO. ADMIN., http://www.

ntia.doc.gov/page/spectrum-planning-subcommittee-sps (last visited Sept. 1, 2015) [hereinafter “NTIA SPS”].

107. Space Systems Subcomm. (SSS), NAT’L TELECOMMS. & INFO. ADMIN., http://www.

ntia.doc.gov/page/space-systems-subcommittee-sss (last visited Sept. 1, 2015) [hereinafter “NTIA SSS”].

108. Technical Subcomm. (TS), NAT’L TELECOMMS. & INFO. ADMIN., http://www.ntia.doc.gov/

page/technical-subcommittee-tsc (last visited Sept. 1, 2015) [hereinafter “NTIA TS”].

109. IRAC Membership List, supra note 83.


Subcommittee (FAS), that it meets monthly, every third Wednesday, to discuss

frequency assignments, with voting that may occur on a daily basis.110

Bylaws

of the subcommittees are codified in the NTIA Redbook Chapter 1.111

IRAC representatives also range in variance in technical knowledge and

agency authority.112

In the GAO report, one subcommittee chair described the

process:

Regarding IRAC’s accomplishment of spectrum-coordination tasks, IRAC representatives agree that the committee effectively assists in coordinating government spectrum use, but 8 of 20 representatives commented that some agency representatives lack sufficient technical knowledge and/or understanding of emerging technologies.

113 This concern was also shared by 4 of the 6 IRAC

subcommittee chairs.114

To remedy this “lack of sufficient technical knowledge and/or

understanding of emerging technologies”115

within the IRAC, the Commerce

Spectrum Management Advisory Committee (CSMAC) was established in

2004 to assist as an expert advisory body with thirty-one commercial

representatives to advise the NTIA Assistant Secretary of Commerce on

spectrum policy.116

CSMAC meets quarterly and has five technical working

groups.117

Between 1978 and 2004, the NTIA IRAC did not have the expert

advisory resources of the private sector to better use the federal radio spectrum.

During those years, the FCC had conducted its first spectrum auctions and

facilitated the launch of mobile wireless phones on licensed bands.118

CSMAC

includes representatives from the private sector, with up to thirty members.119

GSA keeps a list of members of the committee (under the NTIA Organization

Act, under the Federal Advisory Committee Act).120

CSMAC has led the

1780–1850 MHz relocation effort on how to find paired spectrum for LTE and

other high-valued wireless use by the commercial sector.121

Due to the lack of progress in IRAC and CSMAC, the President’s

Council on Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST) was established in

2009 as an advisory group with scientific experts to advise the Executive

Office of the President.122

PCAST recommended in 2012 for the formation of

110. NTIA FAS, supra note 104.

111. REDBOOK, supra note 2, at 1–6.

112. GAO-04-1028, supra note 78 at 3.

113. Id.

114. Id.

115. Id.

116. Charter of the Commerce Spectrum Mgmt. Advisory Comm., NAT’L TELECOMMS. & INFO. ADMIN.

(Mar. 3, 2015), http://www.ntia.doc.gov/other-publication/2015/csmac-2015-charter [hereinafter “CSMAC

Charter”].

117. Id.

118. See generally Auctions, FCC (Aug. 18, 2015), http://wireless.fcc.gov/auctions/default.htm

(describing auction eligibility rules).

119. CSMAC Charter, supra note 116.

120. Id.

121. NTIA CSMAC Search, supra note 100.

122. About PCAST, THE WHITE HOUSE, https://www.whitehouse.gov/administration/eop/ostp/pcast/

about (last visited Sept. 1, 2015).


a Spectrum Management Team (SMT) to work with NTIA.123

Legislative and

executive mandates have driven performance goals and priorities for federal

spectrum management.124

In 2004, the White House released a memorandum

that generated a report in 2008 on a Federal Strategic Spectrum Plan.125

In

2010, the White House set a goal to release 500 MHz of federal spectrum by

2020.126

The report also proposed to rename the Spectrum Relocation Fund as

the “Spectrum Efficiency Fund.”127

Fragmentation of knowledge leads each of these spectrum policy

committees to seek more engineering advice as the reallocation decisions

become more complex.128

Each spectrum committee recognizes its need for

“additional qualifications” or expert advice from “radio engineer or technical

expert[s].”129

However, mere technical expertise does not mitigate the

fragmentation problem.130

The nature of the repacking task on federal

spectrum may require institutional change that takes into account the nature of

the inventory task.

D. Managing the Engineers

Who are the federal employees who operate radio devices and federal

spectrum uses and what are their incentives? Federal radio engineers inventory

each radio and these employees are located within operating groups of the

organizational structure of the federal agencies.131

While policy

representatives spend time in working groups and committees, field employees

have technical judgment on particularly customized equipment.132

An example can be seen in just one category of technology, notably the

1.7 GHz microwave radio device. In Figure 2, CSMAC shows an outline of

the locations of 1.7 GHz microwave paths.133

For each of those links, there are

engineers who will reposition and reroute the communications.134

Radio

engineers in the federal government differ from the private sector, where their

123. PCAST Report 2012, supra note 44, at iii.

124. Id. at 8.

125. See MEREDITH A. BAKER ET AL., U.S. DEP’T OF COMMERCE, SPECTRUM MANAGEMENT FOR THE

21ST CENTURY, THE PRESIDENT’S SPECTRUM POLICY INITIATIVE, FED. STRATEGIC SPECTRUM PLAN (2008),

http://www.ntia.doc.gov/files/ntia/publications/federalstrategicspectrumplan2008.pdf (discussing the strategic

federal need for a spectrum use plan).

126. Memorandum from President Barack Obama to the Heads of Executive Departments and Agencies

(June 28, 2010), http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/presidential-memorandum-unleashing-wireless-

broadband-revolution.

127. PCAST Report 2012, supra note 44, at 57.

128. Id. at vii–viii.

129. Relocation of and Spectrum Sharing by Federal Government Stations—Technical Panel and

Dispute Resolution Boards, 78 Fed. Reg. 5310, 5312 (Jan. 25, 2013) (to be codified at 47 C.F.R. pt. 301).

130. See generally PCAST Report 2012, supra note 44 (discussing the necessity of implementing an

institutional framework to deal with the current fragmentation of spectrum knowledge).

131. USAJOBS, U.S. OFFICE OF PERS. MGMT., https://www.usajobs.gov/GetJob/ViewDetails/363170600

(last visited Sept. 1, 2015) (describing a job with the federal government in the radio engineering field).

132. Id. See also USAJOBS, U.S. OFFICE OF PERS. MGMT., https://www.usajobs.gov/GetJob/

ViewDetails/366510100 (last visited Sept. 1, 2015) (describing a job with the federal government in the radio

engineering field specifically dealing with policy issues).

133. NTIA CSMAC Search, supra note 100, at 36.

134. Id.


chain of command comes from an agency head, who negotiates with other

agencies through spectrum policy representatives, before relocation across the

spectrum can occur.135

In a similar manner, their job constraints closely

resemble the federal property manager of real property holdings.

Furthermore, in human capital intensive fields such as engineering,

employees can be notoriously independent and difficult to manage due to wide

variation in skill, judgment and expertise required in designing systems. The

private sector has made advances in promoting management skills in managing

human capital, lowering agency costs, and increasing output.136

The federal

government can take note of Google’s Project Oxygen findings on

performance reviews and manager effects on engineers. With 37,000

employees, Google has refined “people analytics” that move organizations

forward through difficult engineering decisions.137

The project applied

empirical discipline to the “soft stuff” of people management, and found that

engineering management does matter.138

135. USAJOBS, supra note 137.

136. Nicholas Bloom et al., Management Practices Across Firms and Countries (NAT’L BUREAU OF

ECON. RES., Working Paper No. 17850, 2012), http://www.nber.org/papers/w17850.pdf (comparing

management quality and its effect on productivity and growth).

137. Adam Bryant, Google’s Quest to Build a Better Boss, N.Y. TIMES (Mar. 12, 2011),

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/13/business/13hire.html; David A. Garvin, How Google Sold its Engineers

on Management, HARV. BUS. REV. (Dec. 2013), http://hbr.org/2013/12/how-google-sold-its-engineers-on-

management/ar/1.

138. Garvin, supra note 137.


Figure 2. Detailed Repacking of Federal Microwave Paths 1.7 GHz139

The management of engineers involves alignment of incentives and

emotional intelligence to build complex systems with cohesive designs.

Performance management has been a major asset and point of contention for

talent retention in engineering firms such as Microsoft, Yahoo, and Zappos.140

Economists have also studied the role of management as a major driver of

economic growth.141

Engineers that coordinate to build systems are capable of

high performance and efficiency gains or low and negative productivity.

Engineers decide which systems to operate and which to replace with long

term consequences. Google’s Project Oxygen results can inform the

importance of aligning incentives of engineers. The business management

community is well aware of best practices for productivity, with empirical

findings about “paralysis by analysis,”142

and the benefits of training and

139. NTIA CSMAC Search, supra note 100, at 36.

140. See Joshua Brustein, Yahoo’s Latest HR Disaster: Ranking Workers on a Curve, BLOOMBERG BUS.

(Nov. 12, 2013), http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2013-11-12/yahoos-latest-hr-disaster-ranking-

workers-on-a-curve (discussing Yahoo eliminating traditional review for bell curve based review); Shira Ovide

& Rachel Feintzeig, Microsoft Abandons ‘Stack Ranking’ of Employees, WALL ST. J. (Nov. 12, 2013),

http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702303460004579193951987616572 (discussing Micro-

soft eliminating “stack ranking” when reviewing employees); Martha C. White, Amazon Will Pay You $5,000

to Quit Your Job, TIME (Apr. 11, 2014), http://time.com/58305/amazon-will-pay-you-5000-to-quit-your-job/

(discussing Amazon offering compensation to unhappy employees to keep a content workforce).

141. See generally Bloom, supra note 136 (discussing the findings of studies designed to measure

management standards in communication).

142. Bryant, supra note 137.


coaching sessions.143

Manual repacking decisions on federal spectrum has to be done by

engineers. The federal radio engineer is a technical expert who conducts an

inventory and evaluation to replace radios.144

The task of federal radio

spectrum management is not just a measurement task, but also a highly

discretionary task that requires business judgment on valuation and operational

use.145

A wide range of outcomes can arise from each decision, and this

function involves budget constraints, future planning, and procurement

considerations.146

The repacking and relocation decision begins to look much

more granular at the equipment level.147

The difficulty in prioritization of spectrum use across agencies is a well-

known problem in federal spectrum policy.148

Input values of spectrum varies

in the private sector as well as the federal sector with divergent methods of

asset valuation.149

Valuation of spectrum by MHz per pop has a wide range in

commercial spectrum,150

based on its resale in paired or combinatorial

packages,151

and location in urban or rural locations.152

Such variation in

spectrum values in commercial markets is further obscured for federal users

who do not have price information from a secondary market.153

Rather than approaching spectrum reform in abstraction, there is a critical

role for the federal radio engineer. Part of the federal spectrum reform process

could mimic the private sector in the area of engineering management. Federal

radio spectrum is allocated to a single user, the federal government, yet,

143. Id.

144. See USAJOBS, U.S. OFFICE OF PERS. MGMT., https://www.usajobs.gov/GetJob/ViewDetails/

366358200 (last visited Sept. 1, 2015) (describing a job with the federal government in the radio engineering

field reporting deficiencies and inventory).

145. See generally U.S. DEP’T OF COMMERCE, SPECTRUM MANAGEMENT FOR THE 21ST CENTURY: PLAN

TO IMPLEMENT RECOMMENDATIONS OF THE PRESIDENT’S SPECTRUM POLICY INITIATIVE (2006),

http://www.ntia.doc.gov/legacy/osmhome/reports/ImplementationPlan2006.htm (describing tasks and

considerations to update the Government’s spectrum management planning).

146. Id.

147. REDBOOK, supra note 2, at O-11.

148. See generally Radio Frequency Spectrum Management, MITRE.ORG (June 2015), http://www.

mitre.org/publications/systems-engineering-guide/enterprise-engineering/enterprise-technology-information-

and-infrastructure/radio-frequency-spectrum-management (discussing problems in obtaining and maintaining

frequency spectrum allocations).

149. See generally J.P. MORGAN N. AM. EQUITY RES., TELECOM SERVICES & TOWERS: SPECTRUM

OVERVIEW & VALUATION MATRIX, CARRIER BY CARRIER SPECTRUM VALUE ACROSS THE WIRELESS

INDUSTRY (2012), http://apps.fcc.gov/ecfs/document/view?id=7520934036 (estimating values for wireless

spectrum owned by various wireless industry players).

150. SCOTT WALLSTEN, TECH. POLICY INST., IS THERE REALLY A SPECTRUM CRISIS? QUANTIFYING THE

FACTORS AFFECTING SPECTRUM LICENSE VALUE 10 (2013), http://techpolicyinstitute.org/files/

wallsten_is_there_really_a_spectrum_crisis.pdf.

151. Peter Cramton, Spectrum Auction Design, 42 REV. OF INDUS. ORG. 161, 165 (2013) (mentioning

paired and combinatorial auctions), http://www.cramton.umd.edu/papers2005-2009/cramton-spectrum-

auction-design.pdf.

152. COLEMAN BAZELON & GIULIA MCHENRY, THE BRATTLE GRP., SPECTRUM VALUE 9-10 (2012),

http://ssrn.com/abstract=2032213.

153. Oral Testimony: Hearing on Public Safety Broadband Network and H.R. 4829 Before the

Subcomm. on Commc’ns, Tech., and the Internet of the H. Comm. on Energy and Commerce, 111th Cong. 3

(2010) (statement of Coleman Bazelon, Brattle Group), http://democrats.energycommerce.house.gov/sites/

default/files/documents/Testimony-Bazelon-CTI-Public-Safety-Broadband-Discussion-Draft-HR-4829-Next-

Generation-911-2010-6-17.pdf.


fragmented across 19 agencies.154

And still, as a group of engineers,

specialized federal employees retain technical expertise to replace and repack

the radios that can make way for social welfare gains.

E. Features of Federal Spectrum Use

Federal radio spectrum is used in fixed and mobile applications.155

Federal spectrum also incorporates nationwide allocations such as FirstNet for

public-private partnerships.156

Much of federal spectrum use however, is

specialized for defense, science, research, aviation, maritime, and law

enforcement.157

Unlike commercial reallocation, federal spectrum repacking ought to

have lower coordination costs. Federal radios are evaluated by one firm, the

federal government, and radio engineers are paid with federal tax revenues and

fees. Federal agencies compete with other agencies for budget appropriations

and political support, but the federal function in theory, ought to consolidate

the welfare goal.

Federal radios often require large fixed cost investments such as radar,

seismic monitoring, and high frequency astronomy or satellite spectrum.158

Engineers across the agencies are likely to already know each other by name

and industry experience. These features of federal spectrum use indicate that

an institution that combines federal radio expertise into a GSA/GSOC could

generate spectrum saving solutions. The IRAC, which is supposed to serve

this function, is merely an advisory body to the NTIA, which has ultimate

authority but few mechanisms to effect change.159

These local features of federal spectrum use suggest that a related area of

federal resource management, namely real and personal property, could inform

how to improve federal repacking and inventory efforts. The federal

government’s treatment of property holdings may provide guidance here.160

II. FEDERAL PROPERTY MANAGERS AND FEDERAL RADIO ENGINEERS

The federal government manages large quantities of physical and human

154. Interdepartment Radio Advisory Committee, NAT’L TELECOMMS. & INFO. ADMIN.,

http://www.ntia.doc.gov/page/interdepartment-radio-advisory-committee-irac.

155. How the Spectrum is Used, NAT’L TELECOMMS. & INFO. ADMIN., http://www.ntia.doc.gov/book-

page/how-spectrum-used (last visited Sept. 9, 2015).

156. About FirstNet, FIRSTNET, http://firstnet.gov/about (last visited Sept. 9, 2015).

157. Understanding Federal Spectrum Use, NAT’L TELECOMMS. & INFO. ADMIN.,

http://www.ntia.doc.gov/blog/2015/understanding-federal-spectrum-use (last visited Sept. 9, 2015).


159. Legislation has been introduced to enhance the federal government’s ability to reallocate federal

spectrum. See, e.g., FEDERAL SPECTRUM INCENTIVE ACT OF 2015, H.R. 1641 (2015) (to amend various

provisions of the NTIA Organization Act, 47 U.S.C. 923); SPECTRUM PIPELINE ACT OF 2015, H.R. Draft

(2015). 160. DOROTHY ROBYN, BUILDINGS AND BANDWIDTH: LESSONS FOR SPECTRUM POLICY FROM FEDERAL

PROPERTY MANAGEMENT (Brookings Inst., Sept. 23, 2014), http://www.brookings.edu/research

/papers/2014/09/23-buildings-bandwidth-spectrum-property.


resources, of which federal spectrum is just one component.161

The federal

government in FY2012 expended $33,040,945,112 in operating costs for

43,646,357 acres of land, 361,318 buildings, and 3,301,727,086 gross square

feet across 36 agencies large and small.162

Operations of the federal

government have also been modernized to apply best practices from the private

sector.163

Human capital management also affects 4,312,000 federal

employees164

and blue collar positions,165

with leading best practices in

performance reviews and talent retention.166

Within the agencies, OPM rates

Best Agencies to Work, for large, medium, and small agencies.167

A. Incentives in Federal Property Management

GSA was established in 1949 by President Truman to consolidate

property management agencies.168

President Truman consolidated the National

Archives Establishment, Federal Works Agency, and Public Buildings

Administration, Bureau of Federal Supply, Office of Contract Settlement, and

War Assets Administration.169

These agencies themselves had disparate mandates and locations across

the country; property managers were disaggregated and duplicate functions

were performed.170

Through the decades, between 1950 and 1980, the GSA

rolled out resources for federal employees, including technology, office space,

and federal acquisition processes.171

GSA has been a quiet success story of the

United States government.172

Consolidation of the detailed management of

resources into GSA has led reduced waste across the agencies, and the agency

has been a Top 10 Best Places to Work in the Federal Government for many

161. U.S. DEP’T OF COMMERCE, DEP’T OF COMMERCE BUDGET IN BRIEF (2015),

http://www.osec.doc.gov/bmi/budget/FY16BIB/EntireDocument-WebVersionWithCharts.pdf.

162. U.S. GEN. SERVS. ADMIN. (GSA), FY 2012 FEDERAL REAL PROPERTY REPORT, http://www.gsa.gov/

portal/mediaId/179655/fileName/FY_2012_FRPP_intro_508.action.

163. About, ADMIN. CONFERENCE OF THE U.S., https://www.acus.gov/best-practices/about.

164. U.S. OFFICE OF PERSONNEL MGMT. (OPM), TOTAL GOVERNMENT EMPLOYMENT SINCE 1962,

https://www.opm.gov/policy-data-oversight/data-analysis-documentation/federal-employment-reports/historic-

al-tables/total-government-employment-since-1962/.

165. The Twenty Largest Blue-Collar Occupations as of September 2013 and Compared to September

2013, U.S. OFFICE OF PERS. MGMT., http://www.opm.gov/policy-data-oversight/data-analysis-documentation/

federal-employment-reports/reports-publications/the-twenty-largest-blue-collar-occupations/ (last visited Sept.

1, 2015).

166. Human Capital Management, U.S. OFFICE OF PERS. MGMT., http://www.opm.gov/policy-data-

oversight/human-capital-management/#url=Taxonomy (last visited Sept. 1, 2015).

167. Best Places to Work Agency Rankings, P’SHIP FOR PUB. SERV., http://bestplacestowork.org/BPTW/

rankings/overall/large (last visited Sept. 1, 2015).

168. A Brief History of GSA, U.S. GEN. SERVS. ADMIN., http://www.gsa.gov/portal/content/103369 (last

visited Sept. 1, 2015).

169. Id. (“GSA’s original mission was to dispose of war surplus goods, manage and store government

records, handle emergency preparedness, and stockpile strategic supplies for wartime. GSA also regulated the

sale of various office supplies to federal agencies and managed some unusual operations, such as hemp

plantations in South America.”).

170. GSA Historical Highlights, U.S. GEN. SERVS. ADMIN., http://www.gsa.gov/portal/content/101129

(last visited Sept. 1, 2015).

171. A Brief History of GSA, supra note 168.

172. Id.


years.173

The federal radio engineer may be more akin to a federal property

manager in function and form than spectrum policy advisory committees. The

federal radio engineer considers local conditions of the radios and coordinates

with agency budget authority.174

Resource decisions require business

judgment and the mitigation of agency costs through mistakes or

mismanagement. Federal property managers can make good decisions or poor

decisions. Employees who specialize and handle property decisions learn and

improve through performance management. Agency costs are minimized for

property managers through incentives such as reward programs.175

The Office

of Personnel Management includes awards and recognition for federal

employees who perform at high levels in real property, personal property,

personnel management, federal mail, government accounting, and other

management capacities.176

Energy management is also a growing area of lean

government efforts.177

Property management outcomes can be incentivized to award high

performance. Employee award programs are part of a “systematic process by

which an agency involves its employees, as individuals and members of a

group, in improving organizational effectiveness in the accomplishment of

agency mission and goals.”178

The OPM has embraced performance

management to support sound management principles and to implement best

practices from effective organizations in the private sector.179

The OPM

acknowledges the innovations from organizational management, from

planning, monitoring, developing, rating, rewarding, and managing

performance effectively.180

B. Incentives in Federal Radio Management

Like property managers, federal employees are stewards of fixed cost

radio equipment and specialized spectrum uses. Incentives for federal agencies

and the radio engineers within the agencies would improve federal radio

spectrum use. Private engineering firms would likely structure incentive

systems such as performance bonuses or equity shares to find efficient

solutions and new technology. In federal spectrum, an elite group of engineers

could be rewarded to find solutions to repack radio bands with legacy

173. Id.

174. Job Title: Electronics Engineer, U.S. OFFICE OF PERS. MGMT., https://www.usajobs.gov/GetJob/

ViewDetails366510100 (last visited Sept. 1, 2015).

175. See Performance Management, Awards List, U.S. OFFICE OF PERS. MGMT., https://www.opm.gov/

policy-data-oversight/performance-management/awards-list (listing awards given to high-performing

employees) (last visited Sept. 1, 2015).

176. Id.

177. Sustainability, U.S. OFFICE OF PERS. MGMT., https://www.opm.gov/sustainability/ (last visited Sept.

1, 2015).

178. Performance Management, Overview & History, U.S. OFFICE OF PERS. MGMT.,

https://www.opm.gov/policy-data-oversight/performance-management/overview-history/ (last visited Sept. 1,

2015).

179. Id.

180. Id.


equipment. Funds could provide a focused incentive through market-based

organizational behavior principles. Some scholars have suggested such prizes

and awards for federal spectrum reallocation.181

Awards for high performance in property management exist in several

areas of federal real property.182

OPM receives and processes nominations for

large contributions to cost-savings and property management.183

Some of

these awards include the Federal Property Manager of the Year Award,

American Planning Association (APA) Federal Planning Awards, National

Society of Professional Engineers Federal Engineer of the Year, Miles Romney

Achievement Award for Innovation in Personal Property Management, and

General Services Administration Achievement Awards for Real Property

Innovation.184

The institution to recognize and reward property management

performance, however, is built upon the GSA organization that trains and

monitors the property managers.185

III. CERTIFICATION OF FEDERAL RADIO ENGINEERS

In order to enable federal employees to make critical relocation and

repacking decisions, certification may be necessary to identify employees with

expert authority. Certification of federal radio engineers may combine “trusted

agent” status and federal radio repacking authority.186

That federal spectrum

use is vital and has national security implications187

should not deter greater

consolidation of engineering expertise.

Certification of classes of employees for sensitive high-risk resource

decisions is not uncommon in the federal government for agencies with

sensitive, rules-based discretionary tasks.188

High-risk decisions are routinely

made by federal employees in agencies such as the FAA, DOD, Treasury,

Federal Reserve, NIST, CIA, FBI, and GSA.189

Licensing standards and

professional certification boards also support federal government productivity,

181. MARK MACCARTHY, SPECTRUM FOR THE NEXT GENERATION OF WIRELESS 38 (Aspen Inst., 2011),

http://www.aspeninstitute.org/sites/default/files/content/docs/pubs/Spectrum_for_the_next_generation_of_

wireless.pdf.

182. Performance Management, Awards List, supra note 175.

183. Id.

184. Id.

185. Id.

186. COMMERCE SPECTRUM MGMT. ADVISORY COMM., CSMAC LESSONS LEARNED MEETING

SUMMARY (2013), http://www.ntia.doc.gov/files/ntia/publications/csmac_lessons_learned_executive_

summary.pdf.

187. See Basic Elements of Spectrum Management: How the Spectrum is Used, NAT’L TELECOMMS. &

INFO. ADMIN., http://www.ntia.doc.gov/legacy/osmhome/roosa2.html (last visited Sept. 1, 2015) (illustrating

the significant role the federal spectrum plays in national security).

188. See Background Checks and Security Clearances for Federal Jobs, GO GOV’T,

http://gogovernment.org/how_to_apply/next_steps/security_clearance.php (last visited Sept. 1, 2015)

(describing background checks and security clearances for federal jobs).

189. Electronic Authentication Policy, 66 Fed. Reg. 394-97 (Jan. 3, 2001) (requiring that fiscal agents

and authentication for Treasury be managed by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST));

DEP’T OF TREAS., FED INFO. SEC. MGMT. ACT FISCAL YEAR 2013 EVALUATION (2013), http://www.

treasury.gov/about/organizational-structure/ig/Audit%20Reports%20and%20Testimonies/OIG-CA-14-006.pdf

(showing that security and risk mitigation are applied to Open Market operations, Treasury, U.S. Mint, and

critical financial operations of the federal government).


with federal employees who practice medicine, law, and accounting.190

Tort

liability and national security duties are incorporated into many federal job

functions, with certification procedures to ensure human capital standards and

rules compliance.191

A. Certification Procedures for Specialized Federal Employees

Several certification programs can serve as a model for federal radio

engineers. Certification programs for specialized authority exist for the Patent

and Trademark Office,192

Federal Records Management,193

Federal Acquisition

Contracting (FAC),194

and Contracting Officer’s Representative (FAC-

COR).195

These certifications include general security clearances and

additional top-secret clearances available in many degrees.196

The intellectual

property and expert judgment managed by these employees have similar

features to federal spectrum management, with high agency costs and the need

for risk mitigation.197

Certification for federal real property and personal property management

may also serve as a model for the federal radio engineer. In Federal

Management Regulation, the General Services Administration property

management division outlines detailed instructions for releasing federal

personal and real property to private markets.198

The Federal Asset Sales

Program provides guidance on budget decisions for the agencies and OMB.199

Guidance also covers facility management, disposal, construction, assignment

and use of space, and annual inventories, mail management, records, forms,

and federal ridesharing programs.200

Federal radio spectrum is not exceptional. Other federal resources require

expert technical judgment in order to manage specific constraints and custom

features.201

Although real property has private market valuations compared to

radio spectrum, the federal government manages intellectual property

190. 42 C.F.R. § 483 (2015) (requiring federal certification within the medical field).

191. Id. (providing a remedial mechanism where compliance is failed).

192. USPTO, HOW TO BECOME REGISTERED TO PRACTICE BEFORE THE USPTO IN PATENT MATTERS

(2015) [hereinafter “Patent Matters”], http://www.uspto.gov/ip/boards/oed/exam/grbpage.jsp (“All individuals

seeking registration must meet the requirements of 37 C.F.R. §11.7, including the possession of legal,

scientific and technical qualifications, and good moral character and reputation. Instructions for demonstrating

possession of the necessary qualifications can be found in the General Requirements Bulletin. The possession

of legal qualifications is ascertained by passing the Registration Exam. Former USPTO employees may be

eligible for waiver of the registration examination.”).

193. NAT’L ARCHIVES, FAQS ABOUT NARA’S CERTIFICATE OF FED. RECORDS MGMT. TRAINING

PROGRAM (2015), http://www.archives.gov/records-mgmt/training/certification-faq.html.

194. FED. ACQUISITIONS INST., CERTIFICATION AND CAREER DEV. PROGRAMS (2015).

195. Id.

196. CIA, APPLICATION PROCESS (2015), https://www.cia.gov/careers/application-process (detailing

certifications for security clearances).

197. See Operational Excellence in Federal Spectrum Management, COMMERCE.GOV (Dec. 15, 2014,

2:05 PM), https://www.commerce.gov/news/blog/2014/12/operational-excellence-federal-spectrum-

management (detailing both the importance and difficulty of spectrum management employee’s jobs).

198. 41 C.F.R. § 102.38 (2001).

199. Id.

200. Id.

201. Patent Matters, supra note 192.


classifications through the patent system without direct monetary valuations.202

International spectrum sharing may involve the State Department, but State

Department also has the human capital expertise to protect real property203

and

intellectual property204

across international borders. Federal spectrum that is

domestically located across agencies with international components is not

beyond the scope of federal employee discretion.205

B. Requirements for Federal Radio Engineers

Security concerns create the need for “trusted agents” and not merely

engineering talent, due to the classified nature of national security uses of radio

technology.206

Federal radio engineers often have top-secret clearance to

handle classified IRAC allocation data.207

This trusted agent status with a

good moral character element and background check can be combined with

specialized knowledge requirements for a broader consolidated group of

federal spectrum managers.

Certification would benefit federal spectrum management through

increased knowledge requirements of the NTIA Redbook, compliance

standards, and budget authority. Knowledge of rules and procedures is not an

uncommon requirement for federal employees. Patent agents are asked to pass

a rigorous exam based on the Manual of Patent Examining Procedure (MPEP),

a rulebook that codifies the classification, examination, assignment, search,

and registration requirements of intellectual property.208

Registration for the

patent exam and practitioner status has resulted in 10,906 active agents and

32,642 active attorneys.209

As a thought experiment, perhaps the NTIA

Redbook and DOD Handbook210

may be combined into a consolidated federal

spectrum certificate.211

Perhaps federal spectrum policy has a better chance to reach the

administrative goal of finding 500 MHz of cleared spectrum by understanding

human capital in engineering organizations. The spectrum policy community

has neglected to consider the inventory process by real people, the federal

engineers who work within fragmented inter-agency structures.212

This article

202. Id.

203. U.S. DEP’T OF STATE, BUREAU OF ADMIN., http://www.state.gov/m/a/ (last visited Aug. 31, 2015).

204. U.S. DEP’T OF STATE, INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY ENFORCEMENT, http://www.state.gov/e/eb/tpp/ipe/

(last visited Aug. 31, 2015).

205. Id.

206. COMMERCE SPECTRUM MGMT. ADVISORY COMM., CSMAC LESSONS LEARNED MEETING

SUMMARY (2013), http://www.ntia.doc.gov/files/ntia/publications/csmac_lessons_learned_executive_

summary.pdf.

207. Id.

208. MPEP (9th ed. Mar. 2014), http://www.uspto.gov/web/offices/pac/mpep/.

209. Patent Attorney/Agents Search, USPTO, https://oedci.uspto.gov/OEDCI/ (last visited Sept. 1,

2015).

210. DEF. INFO. SYS. AGENCY, U.S. DEP’T OF DEF., JSC-CR-10-004, COMM’S RECEIVER PERFORMANCE

DEGREDATION HANDBOOK (2010), http://www.ntia.doc.gov/legacy/osmhome/reports/2010/JSC-CR-10-

004.pdf.


212. See generally U.S. DEP’T OF COMMERCE, SPECTRUM POLICY FOR THE 21ST

CENTURY—THE

PRESIDENT’S SPECTRUM POLICY INITIATIVE (1994), http://www.ntia.doc.gov/legacy/reports/specpolini/


highlights the importance of finding and consolidating the engineering

expertise in order to repack and reorganize the federal spectrum. In each

agency, federal radio managers also vary in job sophistication and expertise,

where radio operators can be located on national parks, military bases,

scientific research locations, and local law enforcement facilities.213

Engineers

in the nineteen agencies are typically technical specialists according to federal

employment status. Examples of radio spectrum positions include Technical

Specialist,214

Telecommunications Specialist,215

Communications Specialist,216

and Telecommunications Specialist.217

Policy positions include Supervisory

Technical Specialist at the NTIA,218

and Electronics Engineer with the FCC.219

Some of these engineers will perform better at the repacking task than others.

A certification process for federal radio engineers would at least create an

organization of technical skills for the goals in repacking and transition

decisions.

Certification also creates risk mitigation for a GSA/GSOC entity.220

Certified radio engineers could be identified and vested with inter-agency

decisions that impact long-term budgets and procurement contracts. Radio

engineers could be trained according to detailed instructions on how to propose

relocation plans that better repack the spectrum. Mitigating the decision

fragmentation for federal radio engineers, and identifying leadership on

operating priorities can occur with a restructuring of the federal employees

who operate these radios. If this occurs through a certification process, or

through another administrative designation, the engineers need to work

together to clear federal spectrum. Policy representatives and agency points of

contact can provide support for relocation decision plans, with

acknowledgment that these attorneys are limited in their technical knowledge

to make specialized decisions on the radio allocations.221

Engineers could also benefit from certification through other venues of

collaboration. Spectrum policy representatives meet for World

presspecpolini_report2_06242004.doc (outlining spectrum policy community policy and procedure

recommendations, omitting consideration of the inventory process by real people).

213. See generally REDBOOK, supra note 2 (displaying the variance in duties and tasks assigned to

federal radio managers).

214. U.S. DEP’T OF STATE, Job Title: Foreign Service Information Management Technical Specialist—

Radio, USAJOBS, https://www.usajobs.gov/GetJob/ViewDetails/366358200 (last visited Sept. 1, 2015).

215. U.S. DEP’T OF THE AIR FORCE, Job Title: Telecommunications Specialist, USAJOBS,

https://www.usajobs.gov/GetJob/ViewDetails/366475900 (last visited Sept. 1, 2015).

216. U.S. DEP’T OF TRANSP., Job Title: Airway Transportation Systems Specialist (Communication),

USAJOBS, https://www.usajobs.gov/GetJob/ViewDetails/363170600 (last visited Sept. 1, 2015).

217. U.S. DEP’T OF ARMY, Job Title: Telecommunications Specialist, USAJOBS, https://www.

usajobs.gov/GetJob/ViewDetails/367423500 (last visited Sept. 1, 2015).

218. U.S. DEP’T OF COMMERCE, Job Title: Supervisory Telecommunications Specialist (DEU),

USAJOBS, https://www.usajobs.gov/GetJob/ViewDetails/367832100 (last visited Sept. 1, 2015).

219. FCC, Job Title: Electronics Engineer, USAJOBS, https://www.usajobs.gov/GetJob/ViewDetails/

366510100 (last visited Sept. 1, 2015).

220. Why Be Certified, SOC’Y OF BROAD. ENG’RS, http://www.sbe.org/sections/cert_index.php (last

visited Sept. 1, 2015) (outlining the objectives of SBE certification: to raise the status of broadcast engineers

by providing standards of professional competence, and to recognize those individuals who, by fulfilling the

requirements of knowledge, experience, responsibility and conduct, meet those standards of professional

competence).

221. NTIA Points of Contact, supra note 99.


Radiocommunication Conference meetings, the International

Telecommunications Union Radio Communication Sector, National Academy

of Science, National Science Foundation, European Science Foundation, and

the IEEE have conferences and working groups.222

However, few professional

associations such as the National Spectrum Management Association support

networks for federal radio engineers.223

Several magazines such as

Interference Technology224

and IEEE Spectrum225

provide industry guidance

and membership lists for federal radio engineers, along with the private sector

wireless industry.

CONCLUSION

Federal radio engineers who evaluate, measure, sort, procure, install, and

inventory federal radio devices have the expertise to repack federal radio

spectrum allocations.226

The spectrum repacking task is handled by real people

with expert judgment.227

However, in the public sector, federal repacking

efforts are constrained by institutional realities that fragment policy and budget

decisions from radio engineering decisions. This article reviewed the role of

federal employees in spectrum reallocation, with a proposal of certification

mechanisms that can identify employees capable of advancing repacking

efforts.

222. See Committee on Radio Astronomy Frequencies (CRAF), EUR. SCI. FOUND., http://www.esf.org/

hosting-experts/expert-boards-and-committees/radio-astronomy.html (last visited Sept. 1, 2015) (describing

the Committee’s efforts to protect radiospectrum bands); Committee on Radio Frequencies Agenda, NAT’L

ACAD. OF SCI., http://sites.nationalacademies.org/BPA/BPA_088402 (last visited Sept. 1, 2015) (listing the

Committee’s presentations on radio spectrum management); Enhancing Access to the Radio Spectrum (EARS)

Principal Investigators’ Workshop, NAT’L SCI. FOUND., http://www.nsf.gov/mps/ast/ears_pi_workshop.jsp

(last visited Sept. 1, 2015) (listing the Foundation’s presentations on spectrum policy); IEEE 1900.5 Working

Group (WG) on Policy Language and Architectures for Managing Cognitive Radio for Dynamic Spectrum

Access Applications, IEEE STANDARDS ASS’N, http://grouper.ieee.org/groups/dyspan/5/ (last visited Sept. 1,

2015) (describing the WG’s efforts to expand radio spectrum access); ITU International Symposium on the

Digital Switchover—Presenters Biographies, INT’L TELECOMM. UNION, http://www.itu.int/en/ITU-R/GE06-

Symposium-2015/Pages/presenters-bios.aspx (last visited Sept. 1, 2015) (illustrating spectrum policy

background of ITU Radiocommunication Sector symposium attendees); World Radiocommunication

Conferences (WRC), INT’L TELECOMM. UNION, http://www.itu.int/en/ITU-R/conferences/wrc/Pages/

default.aspx (last visited Sept. 1, 2015) (describing the WRC’s objective of revising the international treaty

governing the use of the radio-frequency spectrum).

223. A Message from our President, NAT’L SPECTRUM MGMT. ASS’N, http://www.nsma.org/about-us/

(last visited Sept. 1, 2015).

224. About Interference Technology, INTERFERENCE TECH., http://www.interferencetechnology.com/

about-us/ (last visited Sept. 1, 2015).

225. About IEEE Spectrum, IEEE SPECTRUM, http://spectrum.ieee.org/static/aboutus (last visited Sept. 1,

2015).

226. BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS, U.S. DEP’T OF LABOR, OCCUPATIONAL OUTLOOK HANDBOOK:

BROAD. AND SOUND ENG’R TECHNICIANS (2014), http://www.bls.gov/ooh/media-and-communication/

broadcast-and-sound-engineering-technicians.htm#tab-2.

227. Id. See also Testimony: Hearing on Improving Federal Spectrum Systems Before the Subcomm. On

Commc’ns and Tech. of the H. Comm. On Energy and Commerce, 114th Cong. 9-10 (Oct. 7, 2015),

http://docs.house.gov/meetings/IF/IF16/20151007/104037/HHRG-114-IF16-Wstate-ReedJ-20151007.pdf

(testimony of Jeffrey H. Reed, Professor, on the Importance of R&D in Improving Federal Spectrum Systems)

(“Incentives can build support from the legacy spectrum users, but the ‘devil is in the details.’ Thought needs

to be given to metrics for assessing what and how much incentives should be given for what [and how much]

concessions. Furthermore, how those incentives are distributed within federal organizations make a difference

in how cooperative the elements in those organizations will be with the transition.”).

repacking and inventorying federal spectrum...

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