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 SEPARATE  STATEMENT  OF  COMMISSIONER  KEVIN  J  .  MARTIN 
 Re:  Amendment  of  Part  15  of  the  Commission’s  Rules  Regarding  Spread  Spectrum  Devices,  Second  Report  and  Order,  ET  Docket  No.  99-  231 
 I  am  pleased  to  join  in  approving  this  item,  which  amends  our  Part  15  rules  to  enable  the  introduction  of  new  technologies  and  allow  for  more  flexibility  in  design  for 
 systems  operating  in  the  unlicensed  bands.  Among  other  things,  this  item  allows  new  digital  transmission  technologies  to  operate  under  the  current  rules  for  spread  spectrum 
 systems  and  provides  new  flexibility  for  frequency  hopping  spread  spectrum  systems  in  the  2.4  GHz  band.  These  actions  will  further  promote  the  already  impressive 
 development  of  devices  and  services  in  the  unlicensed  bands. 
 Increased  spectral  efficiency  –  particularly  through  spectrum  sharing  –  is  becoming  more  and  more  important  as  we  face  ever  increasing  demands  for  spectrum.  I 
 have  thus  encouraged  the  Commission  to  move  toward  policies  that  enable  and  encourage  sharing.  Our  Part  15  rules  have  been  a  huge  success  in  that  regard,  allowing  applications 
 such  as  Bluetooth  and  802.11  to  flourish  by  sharing  spectrum. 
 Today’s  item  continues  this  trend  and  enables  new  and  better  means  of  spectrum  sharing  in  the  unlicensed  bands.  For  example,  the  item  permits  the  use  of  as  few  as 
 fifteen  hopping  channels  for  frequency  hopping  spread  spectrum  systems,  allowing  these  systems  to  better  avoid  occupied  channels  and  thereby  evade  interference.  I  am 
 optimistic  that  this  change  and  the  other  modifications  we  make  in  this  item  will  encourage  even  greater  sharing  and  result  in  a  more  diverse  set  of  products  to  operate  in 
 the  unlicensed  bands. 
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