# Remarks of 

# Commissioner Susan Ness

# Before the 1999 International Ultra-Wideband Conference

**Washington, D.C.**

## September 29, 1999

(*As Prepared for Delivery)*

## "Meeting the Challenge of Innovation at Internet Speed"

I am delighted to join you today to talk about spectrum management
policy for the 21^st^ century and the exciting promise \-- and unique
technological and regulatory challenges \-- posed by ultra-wideband
technology.

One of the most important \-- and I believe, enduring \--
responsibilities of this Commission is its traditional role as steward
of the radio spectrum. For the past five years, I have focused
Commission attention on improving our spectrum management policies \--
both domestically and globally.

From the early days of radio the Commission and its predecessor agency
have been charged with ensuring that spectrum \-- a precious national
resource \--is used efficiently and effectively, and that licensees are
not subjected to harmful interference.

In the days of Marconi and Sarnoff this job was fairly straightforward.
Technological innovations were measured in years while the number of
spectrum users was small.

Those simpler and slower days are long past. Today industry operates at
"light" speed. The Internet sets the pace for new products and services,
with product life cycles collapsing from decades to years.

A few years ago most people outside of this room would not have known an
ASIC from an exotic flower, but today application specific integrated
circuits are helping to demonstrate that Moore's Law is almost as
immutable as Ohm's Law.

The Commission must respond to this dynamic new world at the same time
our job is made far more difficult by the proliferation of spectrum
licensees, the complexity of technologies and the myriad of competing
proposals for new spectrum use. And need I mention that our decisions
have implications for the global spectrum community \-- and vice versa?

This is our challenge: We must provide the leadership and the new
approaches to fulfilling our responsibilities. We must help forge
solutions in timely fashion so that entrepreneurs and engineers with
beneficial technologies for the public have a chance to bring them to
the marketplace \-- all while we protect existing services and the
public from harmful interference. And all while adhering to fundamental
principles of fairness and openness.

In March of 1996 and again in the spring of 1999, I helped organize a
Spectrum Management *En Banc*, both to help the Commission assess what
spectrum policies and systems were working and what were not; and to
explore new and innovative technologies that would have a fundamental
impact on our approaches to spectrum management.

As noted by many witnesses, over the past few years the Commission has
made tremendous progress in revamping our spectrum policies, even as we
recognize that more needs to be done:

-   We have emphasized flexible use and limited reliance on
    standard-setting, to enable licensees to adjust their services to
    the rapidly changing marketplace;

-   We have streamlined the spectrum application process;

-   We have instituted auctions to collapse the time it takes to assign
    licenses;

-   We have revamped RF emissions compliance procedures, and forged
    mutual recognition agreements with our European counterparts to
    expedite the delivery of new products to market;

-   We have facilitated the implementation of products and services
    using spread spectrum technology. Ten years ago, there were less
    than 25 products in the marketplace that deployed spread spectrum
    technology; today the FCC receives requests at a rate of 15-20 per
    month involving such products;

-   And finally, we have expanded the bands designated for unlicensed
    uses, ushering in a wide assortment of new products and services.

#### Unlicensed Devices

I'd like to elaborate on the last point. The development of unlicensed
devices authorized under Part 15 of our rules illustrates one way our
one-size-does-not-fit-all approach to spectrum management has worked.
These devices are key components of the information infrastructure of
this nation. Part 15 has shown that without the intervention of
licensing and with minimal parameters, responsible companies can develop
and operate systems that comply with the FCC's two cardinal conditions:

\(1\) no harmful interference to licensed operations; and

\(2\) acceptance of interference from other lawful operations.

To the extent the Commission steps away from direct regulation,
engineering must step in and assume greater responsibility to anticipate
the electromagnetic environment in which your equipment will operate.
The public needs to be confident that systems will function in that
environment without causing harmful interference to others.

### Ultra-Wideband Technology

Which brings me to the subject at hand \-- the regulatory approval of
the use of ultra-wideband technologies. As I noted, our Spectrum En Banc
last April featured my favorite panel \-- a discussion of new and
innovative technologies that directly impact our traditional way of
managing the radio spectrum. Ultra-wideband was one of these
technologies.

As you know far better than I, ultra-wideband offers the promise of new
radar and imaging services that can save lives. It can help rescue
hostages, locate disaster victims trapped under rubble of a collapsed
building, detect hidden flaws in the construction of highways or airport
runways, secure our homes, and maybe even provide high speed Internet
access to the classroom.

Its ultra-wide disbursement of ultra-low power bursts present novel
interference questions which must be addressed, including how to insure
that existing services are not adversely impacted \-- especially those
services that support public safety \-- and whether widespread
deployment would have any appreciable effect on the noise floor.

# Proposal for Going Forward

One year ago, the Commission issued a Notice of Inquiry to explore these
issues. Comments are in. While we still need to build on the record
developed in our inquiry, I believe that we should go forward with a
Notice of Proposed Rulemaking that will address possible revisions to
our rules that would permit deployment of ultra-wideband services. It is
my hope that we can initiate such a proceeding within the next few
months, with the goal of completing our study during the next year.

But we cannot do it alone. We must have the active involvement of our
colleagues elsewhere in the government who are spectrum users or
managers. And we must have the active involvement of your group and
others in the private sector who would be affected by our actions.

To meet this challenge, I suggest, first, that the Commission, the NTIA,
other agencies and interested parties bring their concerns forward and
jointly test ultra-wideband technology to address these critical
interference questions.

Cooperative testing that includes the principal parties interested in
this technology, as well as those who would be impacted by its use,
should provide us with results delivered more promptly while achieving
wider acceptance. Such has been my experience to date in other contexts.

Perhaps such a public/private effort could use a government testing
facility, such as the NTIA laboratory, or the research facilities of the
ultra-wideband proponents.

And second, such testing should be conducted concurrently with our
issuance of a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking, to avoid unnecessary
regulatory delay.

This approach in no way suggests casual dismissal of valid safety
concerns. I take these interference issues very seriously. But joint
testing, together with proceeding with an NPRM avoids an analog version
of "business as usual" in a digital age. We can proceed in such a way
that the Commission will have the benefit of the test results in time to
conclude a rule-making next year.

I believe that this is an achievable and responsible goal.

Section 7 of the Communications Act of 1996 sets the development of new
technologies as national policy. And, as stewards of the spectrum, the
Commission has an obligation to the American public to ensure that the
process yields the essential information needed to make good spectrum
management decisions in a reasonable timeframe.

I am pleased to serve on a Commission that recognizes and accepts its
responsibilities in achieving that policy goal. We have demonstrated our
commitment to facilitating new technologies and consumer benefits they
provide. We also are committed to streamlining our procedures. Dale
Hatfield, Stagg Neuman, Julie Knapp, and the team in the Office of
Engineering and Technology and others in the bureaus, are working
diligently and ably to develop better approaches to address new
technology.

In our society, the private sector bears the risks of innovation and
correspondingly sets its direction and pace. From my prior life in the
private sector, I know that unnecessary regulatory delays create
uncertainty and harm capital formation.

This Commission continues to seek ways to streamline the regulatory
process to avoid such delays. In so doing, we will meet our
Congressionally mandated mission of providing sound spectrum management
to support public safety and to provide to the American public the
benefits that flow from competitive telecommunications services and
equipment.

But \-- again \-- we need your help. Developing sound policies and rules
in a world where government decision-making must respond at Internet
speed is not easy. This challenge takes on even greater proportions when
the technologies cut across wide bands of spectrum currently used by a
myriad of government and private sector users and often involving
critical and safety applications.

# 

# Conclusion

I want to challenge all of us \-- both in and out of government \-- to
work together to help refine our processes so that we can better address
innovation and new technologies such as ultra-wideband.

We face a new technological millenium; it will excite us, and it will
challenge us \-- personally and institutionally. If we approach it with
our customary resolve and creativity, it will also reward us and those
rewards will carry on for generations to come. Let us meet this
challenge together.

Thank you very much.