..JULIUS GENACHOWSKI CHAIRMAN FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION September 27,2012 The Honorable Olympia J. Snowe United States Senate 154 Russell Senate Office Building Washington, D.C. 20510 Dear Senator Snowe: Thank you for your letter discussing additional approaches to address the growing demand for spectrum. I have appreciated your leadership on telecommunications issues, and agree completely that to ensure ongoing innovation in mobile broadband, we must pursue several strategies vigorously. I am encouraged that the U.S. has regained global leadership in mobile broadband. As you point out, though, many challenges remain to ensure that spectrum users have the resources and certainty necessary to continue advancing American prominence in global teclmology. The Commission's Mobile Action Plan, which I outlined for you in my last letter, is targeted to the array of challenges and is making good progress on many fronts - particularly with recent rulemakings to remove regulatory barriers and outdated rules to increase flexible spectrum use and accelerate rollout of high-speed broadband services. The Commission's coordination with NTIA is moving forward as well, with work to facilitate industry tests of LTE sharing in the 1755-1780 MHz band, which could allow us to make available valuable paired spectrum in the next three years. The Commission's Office of Engineering and Technology recently granted the first special temporary authority (STA) to T-Mobile to begin testing spectrum sharing with federal government users in the 1755-1780 MHz and 2155-2180 MHz bands. The role of receivers in enabling access to spectrum for new services implicates federal stakeholders, as well as the private sector. As you suggest, receiver performance issues often have arisen as a conflict between legacy stakeholders and new entrants where deployment of new teclu1010gies and services tlu'eatens to adversely impact an incumbent, or to place restrictions on the new entrant. The resolution of such matters historically has required a public process involving regUlators, stakeholders and other parties. The Commission's Technological Advisory Committee (TAC) is leveraging the participation of government and industry to craft recommendations for addressing the serious issue of receiver performance. At the June 27, 2012 TAC meeting, the Receivers and Spectrum Work Group presented its approach, which included discussion of standards-based regulated receiver performance. I am encouraged by the TAC's work and look forward to receiving their proposals. 445 12TH STREET S.W. WASHINGTON, D.C. 20554 • 202-418-1000 Page 2-The Honorable Olympia J. Snowe I appreciate your further thoughts on these critically important issues. Please let me know if I can be of any further assistance. Sincerely, Julius Genachowski