STATEMENT OF CHAIRMAN JULIUS GENACHOWSKI Re: Promoting More Efficient Use of Spectrum Through Dynamic Spectrum Use Technologies, ET Docket No. 10-237, Notice of Inquiry; Promoting Expanded Opportunities for Radio Experimentation and Market Studies under Part 5 of the Commission’s Rules and Streamlining Other Related Rules, ET Docket No. 10-236, 2006 Biennial Review of Telecommunications Regulations—Part 2 Administered by the Office of Engineering and Technology (OET), ET Docket No. 06-105, Notice of Proposed Rulemaking. With these two items, we build on our efforts to use spectrum more efficiently and in ways that deliver the highest value for the American people, and to encourage groundbreaking innovation. Earlier this year we took steps to unleash spectrum capacity for flexible use, including mobile broadband. We freed up 25 MHz of WCS spectrum, and are tackling 90 MHz in the mobile satellite service band. For the first time in 25 years, we freed up spectrum below 5 GHz for unlicensed use, launching a new platform for innovation that we hope will lead to new services and products as significant as Wi-Fi. Super Wi-Fi – one of the applications we expect to see from the newly released white spaces spectrum – has been helped and accelerated by FCC experimental licenses. So have new potentially life-saving anti-collision systems in cars. You may have seen the TV ads – this technology requires spectrum, and it was developed using an FCC experimental license. Experimental licensing has also led to important life-saving medical devices. I’m pleased that today we take steps to improve and expand our experimental licensing program. We are proposing, for example, to ease testing restrictions on universities, research organizations, and other institutions that are developing new services and devices that utilize spectrum. We also propose Innovation Zone licenses, and a new program to speed development of new health related devices that use spectrum – an increasingly exciting area for investment and innovation and for improving health care and reducing costs. The goal is to accelerate innovation – to reduce the time for an idea to get from the lab to the market. A more extensive experimental licensing program would also help the FCC make smarter, faster decisions, by giving us on-the-ground intelligence on interference issues, and insight into the development of new cutting edge technologies. Encouraging research and development is vital to our objective of making the U.S. the spawning ground for the great technological advances of tomorrow. Past advances in technology, such as cellular networks and improvements in digital transmission techniques have led to vastly improved efficiency in spectrum use. Consistent with our focus on maximizing the efficient use of spectrum, we are also beginning today an inquiry on how we can spur new technologies that share spectrum dynamically. Today, spectrum that is allocated can sit idle during time periods when the primary licensee is not using the airwaves. Same for geographic locations. This doesn’t make sense given the growing demands on spectrum. My goal is for these proceedings to be a vehicle for identifying steps we can take to unleash and accelerate new spectrally-efficiency policies and technologies. I’m interested in ideas, for example, to jumpstart secondary markets for dynamic spectrum access. I’m interested in how we can encourage better information on spectrum use, building on our innovative spectrum dashboard, and concretely facilitating opportunistic or auxiliary spectrum uses. Historically, the U.S. has led the world in spectrum policy innovation. Auctions of licensed spectrum and release of unlicensed spectrum are two key examples of groundbreaking spectrum policy innovation. I believe incentive auctions are a third. I’d like to set a goal for these proceedings: that it leads to yet another historically significant spectrum policy innovation. I’d like to call for broad participation to meet that goal. I don’t assume that the spectrum management models and policies used today are those that will make the most sense tomorrow, especially given rapidly evolving technologies – both involving dynamic information-based markets and evolving spectrum sensing devices. I think the opportunity here is not only for the development of new spectrum efficient policies – as important as that is – but also for the development of new spectrally-efficient technologies and products, which we would like to see developed and perfected here in the United States. The spectrum proceedings today are all vital parts of ensuring that the U.S. leads the world in mobile in the 21st century – promoting economic growth, job creation, and our global competitiveness. I’d like to thank the staff of the Office of Engineering and Technology, the Wireless Bureau, the Media Bureau, and the Office of General Counsel for their hard work on this item. I’d also like to thank our tireless CTO Doug Sicker for thinking outside the box and working both within the agency and with outside stakeholders to develop two outstanding items.