Advisory board suggests U.S. share 1,000MHz of spectrum with industry for wireless broadband

Noting that "in just two years, the astonishing growth of mobile information technology — exemplified by smartphones, tablets, and many other devices — has only made the demands on access to spectrum more urgent," an advisory council to the president recommends the U.S. identify 1,000 MHz of government-controlled spectrum to share with private industry for wireless broadband.

The advisory group is called PCAST, for President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology. You can read its report here. Instead of "clearing and reallocating" spectrum already used by federal agencies, the team advises a "sharing" model —  the model used for "white space" technology in the television band, which uses empty TV channels for "Super WiFi." In fact, PCAST says sharing should be the norm —  not the exception.

"Improvements in performance make it possible for devices to deliver services seamlessly even in the presence of signals from other systems, so that they do not need exclusive frequency assignments, only an assurance that potentially interfering signals will not rise above a certain level," reads the report.

Ars Technica covers the story here.