This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
On November 14, 2012, Silicon Flatirons co-sponsored the conference “Looking Back to Look Forward: The Next Ten Years of Spectrum Policy.” This conference was held at a pivotal moment for spectrum policy, as the year 2012 marks some important anniversaries: a century since the sinking of the Titanic and the resulting 1912 Radio Act; a decade since the FCC’s Spectrum Policy Task Force Report (SPTFR); and the midpoint of an Administration that has welcomed the FCC’s National Broadband Plan, published a Presidential Memorandum calling for 500 MHz of spectrum to be allocated for wireless broadband use, and commissioned a President’s Council of Advisor’s Science and Technology (PCAST) report on ways to realize the full potential of government-held spectrum. The conference focused on learning lessons from the past 100 years of spectrum policy, and canvassing forward-looking policy advice.