The US government’s obsolete and dysfunctional spectrum management

The current Federal steward of radio frequency assignment authority is the low-level Office of Spectrum Management buried in the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Communications and Information. While ostensibly it has the responsibility for “managing” the Federal spectrum inventory and assignments, it has minimal legal or delegated authority, power, or clout to actually efficiently or effectively manage the nation’s spectrum for the benefit of the Nation or the U.S. taxpaying public. In reality, they are a caretaker and bookkeeper of the nation’s spectrum, not a manager of it — no one is. … There is no coherent Federal policy that spectrum is a valuable scarce resource that needs to be conserved, well-managed and put to its highest and best use for the Nation and the American taxpayer. There is no formal annual spectrum budget process in the executive or legislative branch, where government spectrum holders have to justify their continued use of the spectrum, defend why they can’t share their spectrum with other bureaucracies, or why they can’t clear it for public auction.

There is no regular audit or accountability process to ensure that this valuable spectrum is being efficiently-used, fully-utilized and not wasted. There is no OMB-level review — independent of the departments and agencies that control the spectrum — to verify that it is being responsibly managed. There is also no required economic opportunity-cost analysis or cost-benefit analysis of Federal spectrum use.