The Aspen Institute Roundtable on Spectrum Policy (AIRS) is a continuing series of roundtable discussions about spectrum policy held by the Aspen Institute Communications and Society Program. The 2012 Aspen Institute Roundtable on Spectrum Policy, entitled Spectrum as a Resource for Enabling Innovation Policy, took place November 14-16, 2012. The report of the Roundtable will be available Spring 2013. Please contact project manager Ian Smalley for more information.

Past events:

Spectrum as a Resource for Enabling Innovation Policy
November 14-16, 2012
Aspen Wye River Conference Center
Queenstown, Maryland

The 2012 Aspen Institute Roundtable on Spectrum Policy (AIRS) convened shortly after the presidential election to consider ways that spectrum policy could improve the economy through innovation. The 32 leading communications policy experts in attendance focused on how spectrum policies could help create an environment that makes it easier to use spectrum as a resource for innovative new goods and services. The participants first identified problems facing new entry and innovation today, and then recommended solutions, looking specifically at the interstices between licensed and unlicensed approaches, spectrum sharing and flexibility, and new institutional arrangements to manage these solutions. The report, written by British spectrum expert William Webb, sets forth eleven recommendations that he gleaned from the conference dialogue to guide future spectrum policy development with regard to facilitating innovation.

Download Spectrum as a Resource for Enabling Innovation Policy

The Reallocation Imperative: A New Vision for Spectrum Policy
November 13-15, 2011
Aspen Wye River Conference Center
Queenstown, Maryland

The 2011 Aspen Institute Roundtable on Spectrum Policy (AIRS) brought together Federal Government regulators, academic and technical experts, industry representatives, and public interest groups to address new ways of allocating, clearing, using and/or sharing spectrum controlled by private parties and government agencies. The report, written by rapporteur Preston Marshall, steps back and establishes a broad vision for reallocating spectrum in the United States in the public interest, discussing new approaches that will facilitate more effective and efficient spectrum use. A number of recommendations are laid forth to guide future spectrum policy development, Congressional actions, and technology explorations.

Download The Reallocation Imperative: A New Vision for Spectrum Policy

Spectrum for the Next Generation of Wireless
November 14-16, 2010
Aspen Wye River Conference Center
Queenstown, Maryland

In November 2010, the Aspen Institute Communications and Society Program convened the Aspen Institute Roundtable on Spectrum Policy, where 31 experts and leaders addressed the consequences and solutions to the increasing demand for spectrum. Spectrum for the Next Generation of Wireless is the report resulting from the Roundtable discussions. Written by rapporteur Mark MacCarthy, the report explores possible sources of spectrum, looking specifically at incentives or other measures to assure that spectrum finds its highest and best use. It includes a number of recommendations, both private and federal, of where and how spectrum can be repurposed for wireless use.

Download Spectrum for the Next Generation of Wireless

Rethinking Spectrum Policy:
A Fiber Intensive Wireless Architecture
Aspen Institute Roundtable on Spectrum Policy
November 11-13, 2009
Aspen Wye River Conference Center
Queenstown, Maryland

Rethinking Spectrum Policy: A Fiber Intensive Wireless Architecture is the report resulting from the Aspen Institute Roundtable on Spectrum Policy, held at the Aspen Wye River Conference Center in November 2009. Written by rapporteur Mark MacCarthy, the report captures the insights of the participants, exploring innovative ways to respond to the projections of exponential growth in the demand for wireless services and additional spectrum. In addition to discussing spectrum reallocations, improved receivers, shared use and secondary markets as important components for meeting demand, the report also examines opportunities for changes in network architecture, such as shifting the mix between fiber and wireless.

Download Rethinking Spectrum Policy: A Fiber Intensive Wireless Architecture

A Framework for a National Broadband Policy
4th Annual Aspen Institute Roundtable on Spectrum Policy: Toward a National Broadband Policy: Spectrum Goals and Policies
May 17-18, 2007
Aspen Wye River Conference Center, Queenstown, Maryland

Philip J. Weiser, rapporteur. While the importance of broadband access to functioning modern society is now clear, millions of Americans remain unconnected, and Washington has not yet presented any clear plan for fixing the problem. Condensing discussions from the 2007 Conference on Communications Policy and the 4th Annual Aspen Institute Roundtable on Spectrum Policy (AIRS) into a single report, Professor Philip Weiser of the University of Colorado at Boulder offers a series of specific and concrete policy recommendations for expanding access, affordability, and adoption of broadband in the United States.

Download A Framework for a National Broadband Policy.

Clearing the Air: Convergence and the Safety Enterprise
3rd Annual Aspen Institute Roundtable on Spectrum Policy
May 3-5, 2006
Aspen Wye River Conference Center, Queenstown, Maryland

The 2006 roundtable considered with specificity problems now plaguing the safety enterprise. This report from the roundtable offers recommendations for integrating a communications network among all its members of in order to increase efficiency, lower costs, and save lives.

Download Clearing the Air: Convergence and the Safety Enterprise authored by Philip J. Weiser.

Spectrum in Transition: Policy Options for the Uses of Rural and Broadcasting Spectrum
3rd Annual Aspen Institute Roundtable on Spectrum Policy
June 15-16, 2005
Aspen Wye River Conference Center, Queenstown, Maryland

The 2005 roundtable considered with specificity how spectrum policies can address and alleviate problems in the rural telecommunications and broadcast services, and to devise policy options for consideration in both the legislative and regulatory arenas.

Download Policy Issues for Telecommunications Reform authored by Robert M. Entman.

Challenging the Theology of Spectrum: Policy Choices Ahead
2nd Annual Aspen Institute Roundtable on Spectrum Policy
June 7-8, 2004
Aspen Wye River Conference Center, Queenstown, Maryland

The inaugural Aspen Institute Roundtable on Spectrum Policy (AIRS) conference, Challenging the Theology of Spectrum: Policy Choices Ahead examined the very core concepts of spectrum policy, and the sacred uses to which it is put. The Roundtable developed a theology of spectrum its use, its rules, and its mythology. This conference peeled underneath the claims for each to sort out the underlying bases for these claims, and in doing so developed an agenda for policy choices ahead. To purchase a copy of the report Challenging the Theology of Spectrum: Policy Reformation Ahead by Robert M. Entman, visit our bookstore or download a free PDF version of the report.