Spectrum Policy Workshop (December 15, 2020)

Workshop Topic: The wireless industry employs millions of workers, but the workforce mostly lacks understanding of telecom policies and the underlying economic and social criteria that drove those policies. The economics and institutions determining spectrum policy and the setting of technical standards are fundamental to understanding policy choices essential to wireless networking. Aligning the interests of various parties about spectrum so that economic gains can be equitably shared is a delicate task. Moreover, the processes for setting global wireless standards are becoming heavily contested because of rival economic and national security interests. This workshop will bring together a group of people with different perspectives to explore all facets of this challenge and get away from a silo-based view.  In particular, it will explore the merits of initiatives to alter the economic models on which standards for wireless networks have traditionally operated, including initiatives to create more modular designs for wireless networks that make it easier to duplicate the economic models dominant in information technology and networking that are now at the center of policy discussions over the future of wireless network policies.

Workshop Goals:  This workshop will gather input from a diverse and knowledgeable working group to initiate the development of an education and workforce training plan for a future Spectrum Innovation Center that would a) educate the wireless workforce on economic and social mechanisms in spectral policy considerations, and b) include data-driven approaches to quantify the value of spectrum sharing from both a consumer and carrier perspective.