The government should impose market-based fees on federal...

The government should impose market-based fees on federal agencies to force them to rationalize their spectrum holdings, Brattle Group said in a white paper paid for by Verizon. “By imposing a spectrum based fee, the cost of spectrum based services for federal users will reflect the use of this scarce resource,” Brattle said (http://bit.ly/1bu6eM7). “Consistent with the principle that government spectrum users should consider the [foregone] economic value of spectrum deployed for their services, we suggest that a federal user fee should be based on the commercial value of spectrum. By tying the fee for federal spectrum to spectrum’s commercial price, federal users would be incurring the foregone economic value or opportunity cost of the spectrum in deploying these federal services.” Brattle said, like industry, the government has a growing need for spectrum. “As of September 2012, federal users had over 240,000 frequency assignments and their needs are increasing,” Brattle said. “Superstorm Sandy and the Mid-Atlantic Derecho only reinforced the need for accurate satellite weather tracking and hardened wireless infrastructure that can sustain the force of brutal storms. Even before the nationwide interoperable public safety network is built, local public safety groups foresee a growing need for video surveillance and mobile wireless video support for rapid response.”