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 21st 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.