Public Needs to Know How Government Runs Its Airwaves

PUBLIC NEEDS TO KNOW HOW GOVERNMENT RUNS ITS AIRWAVES
[SOURCE: San Francisco Daily Journal 5/10, AUTHOR: J.H. Snider, new America Foundation]
[Commentary] Popularly known as the "public airwaves," spectrum is becoming to the information era what land was to the agricultural era and energy to the industrial era: its defining and most valuable natural resource. Spectrum allows people and machines to communicate without being connected to wires. Most households have dozens of spectrum using devices, including cordless phones, cellular telephones, garage door remotes, FM radios, satellite TVs, wireless car keys, Bluetooth headphones, invisible fences, and WiFi broadband connections. Most spectrum is reserved for the federal government, and not for private use. The federal government allocates spectrum, and not unsurprisingly, allocated most for its own use. Since all agencies communicate, they all have a need for spectrum. More than 30 federal agencies have allocations of spectrum, with the Departments of Defense and Homeland Security widely believed to have the largest allocations. As spectrum becomes the lifeblood of our information economy and the animating medium of our democratic speech, the cost of potentially misused government spectrum is becoming larger than ever. Achieving the right balance between secrecy and openness will not be easy. But the current balance has clearly erred too far in the direction of secrecy.
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