[powerpress]

Jayne Stancavage, the Global Executive Director of Product and Digital Infrastructure Policy at Intel Corporation fills us in on the global and local systems for spectrum allocation.

She also chairs the Federal Communication Commission’s (FCC) WRC-23 Advisory Committee Informal Working Group for terrestrial services, serves as a member of the Department of State’s International Digital Economy and Telecommunication Advisory Committee, serves on the Board of Directors for the Open RAN Policy Coalition and the US Telecom Training Institute and is a member of the Global mobile Suppliers Association (GSA) Spectrum Group management team.

We’re very lucky that she had time for an extensive discussion of the use cases, management systems, and policy considerations around spectrum-based systems around the world.

Highlights

• How we make spectrum available for new use cases and applications: Where bands are currently in use, legacy systems are upgraded to use smaller footprints and excess is either auctioned for licensed use, made available for free for unlicensed use, or made available under a hybrid model with license for priority use with free access at other times. New spectrum is harnessed by new technologies made available by advances in semiconductor (“chips”) engineering. Timecode 2:42.
• National broadband plans: The US National Broadband Plan of 2010 was the first such plan of the iPhone era. Consequently, it broke new ground in addressing spectrum reassignment. Current discussion in Washington DC suggests the time is ripe for a national spectrum plan to keep the progress going. Timecode 17:18
• Prospects for the future: It’s incredibly hard to predict what new applications will bring to the fore for radio-based systems. The only certainly is more and better use cases and applications. While today’s applications are human-centric, the next generation of wireless systems are likely to transform entire economic sectors. One good example is the combination of wireless, cameras, and AI to improve manufacturing processes and health care. Timecode 34:51

Index

• Repurposing spectrum from aging legacy applications to higher uses. 2:42
• The key to higher uses is “upgrade and repack”. 5:57
• Technology innovation in chips, systems, and software makes new spectrum bands available. 7:47
• Moore’s Law plays out in communications as well as in computation. 10:13
• WRC-23 is set to amend and improve the international treaty for satellite and terrestrial radio uses. 12:20
• Nothing illustrates the importance of international interoperability like travel. 15:34
• National broadband plans now include important provisions for wireless systems. 17:18
• Nothing restores confidence in the ability of Congress to work on a bipartisan basis like spectrum policy. 25:06
• CBRS is a novel system that combines licensed and unlicensed uses into a single framework. It’s complicated. 29:12
• Prospects for the future of wireless: it’s going to be stunning! 34:51
• Is Moore’s Law a conspiracy to create demand for spectrum? It’s plenty smart in any case. 42:54

Enjoy!