Wave: The AWS auction was by all accounts enormously successful, certainly financially for the Treasury. But you had much to do with that with managing the various federal government spectrum users, taking care of their needs and addressing their concerns. How would you at this point characterize that process and how that’s going?
Mr. Kneuer: Well, first, while the money is nice, I think the monies generated from the auction revenue are less significant than the economic activity that will flow from having this spectrum in the marketplace. Putting the spectrum to its highest and best economic use is equally if not more important than the revenue it raised.
I think the process so far has been exemplary. The agencies were very rigorous in their cost assessments and in their planning for their eventual relocation from their operations in the 1710 to 1755 MHz. They did that without a mandate from anybody. It was good policy outcome for us to do that.
I think Congress is to be commended for its work in passing the Commercial Spectrum Enhancement Act that gave us the mechanism to rationalize reimbursement for relocation expenses.
Everything I’ve seen in the process up to now gives me great confidence that as we get to actual relocation and coordination of systems, the agencies are going to be a helpful partner with industry in making sure that coordination or relocation is done smoothly and efficiently without any disruption to their critical government missions, but also without any disruption to rational and thoughtful commercial
business plans.
Wave: How prepared are you for inevitable bumps in the road regarding relocation?
Mr. Kneuer: I think we are well prepared. The agencies haven’t been sitting still waiting for a carrier to knock on their door to say, “oh by the way you’re going to have to relocate.” They know they’re going to relocate. They’ve done all their planning. They know where they’re moving.
The key is to get access to the resources in the relocation fund. They also need to have accurate timely information delivered to them by the licensees. They need to have a willing partner among the licensees who can share accurate, full technical information. (See CTIA Spectrum Clearinghouse, LLC, page 20.)
