Economic Questions:
Why would agencies give up control of their spectrum to a GSOC when they won’t give up control to anyone else now?
How will the government determine the rental rate of government spectrum? Is there a market for this spectrum?
Summary:
Wireless services (radio, television, wireless, GPS signals, etc.) require access to the radio spectrum to send and receive information. The government itself, particularly the Department of Defense, controls large swaths of spectrum. Most agree that government agencies have little incentive to use spectrum efficiently and, therefore, hold far more than they need. Private and civil wireless uses could benefit from access to this under-used spectrum.
While administration after administration have attempted to make some government-controlled spectrum available to non-government organizations, none has made much progress. The underlying problem is that agencies have little incentive to cooperate. From their perspective they would be giving up an asset and receiving nothing in return.
A proposed solution to the spectrum conundrum is to create an agency for managing government spectrum. Proposed by Tom Lenard and Larry White, the Government Spectrum Ownership Corporation (or GSOC) would create a spectrum system that works similar to the GSA; agencies would retain ownership of the spectrum they currently hold, but pay “rent” that reflects market rate value of that spectrum. This incentivizes agencies to release portions they may not need, allowing the FCC to auction off greater portions.
Freeing up under used spectrum is critical to faster technological development, including rolling out 5G. The creation of GSOC would make spectrum allocation more efficient and allow private companies to acquire necessary spectrum for development.