NTIA Recommends Improvements to U.S. WRC Preparatory Process

“Federal agency participation in the FCC’s WAC process provides significant value to both private sector and the executive branch, even though agencies participate only as observers,” NTIA said. It said it would provide guidance to the Radio Conference Subcommittee (RCS) on federal agency participation in the FCC WRC process to “allow the RCS liaisons to brief the IWG on the status of the preliminary views and proposal developments in the RCS and IRAC processes.”

“It’s a very good initiative,” said the U.S. Ambassador to WRC-2003, Janice Obuchowski: “The single most important recommendation is to speed up the private sector-government coordination and to start international discussion earlier. Historically, we worked very hard on forming our recommendations but in some cases they have been decided very late, and much of the rest of the world has made up its mind. In those cases, we had a very steep hill to climb.”

“The report is on the right track and will benefit private industry interests,” one industry source said: “We would like a greater involvement of the private sector in the coordination process.” Lockheed Martin Senior Dir.-Trade & Regulatory Affairs Jennifer Warren said: “We are very pleased with the initiative as well as the recommendations made. They are very closely aligned to the private sector input.” Warren stressed it was “very important that [NTIA] did this before the ramp-up that will occur before the next WRC. Hopefully, the recommendations will be adopted and institutionalized before the next WRC.”

The report responded to a 2002 GAO review of the U.S. WRC preparatory process and House Govt. Reform Committee hearings the same year. GAO recommended the State Dept., FCC and NTIA “jointly review the adequacy of the preparation process” after the 2003 WRC and develop recommendations for improvements. It said to ensure a successful outcome the U.S. should assess challenges it faces to developing a position at the start of its WRC preparation. At the hearings, NTIA Dir. Michael Gallagher said his group would prepare a report.

“The U.S. has been very successful in achieving its objectives at these conferences,” the report said. It urged more refinement in the preparatory process via: (1) Increased agency senior level engagement. (2) Improved cooperation and coordination, federal and non-federal. (3) Early international consultation and formation of a U.S. delegation. A better WRC preparatory process is one of 24 recommendations NTIA sent to President Bush in June 2004 in response to the President’s initiative for a U.S. spectrum policy for the 21st century.

To improve NTIA-FCC coordination, NTIA will set up regular meetings between WRC coordinators and NTIA and the FCC, the report said. “The agenda for these meetings should include policy-level determination on how to pursue agenda items, approaches for ITU-T studies to support WRC objectives, preliminary view and proposal reconciliation and identification of contentious issues needing senior management attention,” it said. NTIA also said the FCC should indicate whether it supports WAC-approved documents before NTIA approval. “There’s been good cooperation between FCC and NTIA and it gets better with every conference,” one industry source said. The source said NTIA’s “intent to have more cooperation between government and private sector would be in our interest.”

The U.S. should form its position and meet with key countries on contentious issues “early in the process,” the report said. Outside WRCs, “federal employees should continue to promote informal contacts that cultivate relationships that we built during the conference, especially those with individuals who do not participate in the ITU-R study group,” it said.

Early designation of an Ambassador and a delegation would “provide stability and strong leadership in representing the interest of the U.S.,” NTIA said. The Ambassador is to be named 6 months before an WRC starts, but the “6-month tenure… does not allow enough time for the Ambassadors to develop sound working relationships with other country representatives or complete the necessary delegation activities for which they are responsible,” the group said. It also urged that delegation members have telecom backgrounds, preferably with ITU experience.

“We have always strongly advocated that formation of the delegation starts much quicker because it takes a lot of time to form a position,” the industry source said: “All agendas are formed 2 years in advance… We want the official Ambassador to be appointed at least a year before the WRC.”