Government Will Free Up Airwaves for Commercial Use : Telecommunications: Action will significantly increase the bands available for use on the information superhighway.

The Clinton Administration on Thursday freed up a slice of the nation’s airwaves for new commercial communications technologies and proposed that an even bigger chunk of government-controlled airwaves be relinquished for future commercial use.

The changes--which could begin as early as this summer and continue into the next decade--could help the government raise billions of dollars by nearly doubling the proportion of the airwaves it could make available to businesses for wireless phone, data, video transmission and other telecommunications services.

Such mobile communications services represent one of the fastest-growing segments of the $300-billion telecommunications industry. Telephone and computer engineers, among others, are rushing to develop products that will allow users to send and receive faxes, voice, video and other information from devices as portable and unobtrusive as a wrist watch.

The freeing up of airwaves was proposed after the Coast Guard, Department of Energy and other government agencies agreed--after a year of bitter negotiations--to relinquish control over 200 megahertz of valuable radio frequency.

A hertz is a unit of frequency in a radio spectrum that ranges from cosmic rays to TV and radio waves. Broadcasters, phone companies, satellite operators and others use these airwaves to transmit voice, video and other information. But each service ties up slices of radio spectrum.

The 200-megahertz chunk is significant: The FM radio band uses just 20 megahertz, for example; cellular phones use another 50.

Under the accord, some military activities, such as air defense radar systems and military communications links, would be forced to move outside the block of airwaves being reallocated to make way for commercial use.

Experts expect the proposal to provoke a huge lobbying campaign pitting business against military interests. The Commerce Department is giving all parties about three months to comment on its proposals, after which they may be modified.

Commerce Secretary Ronald H. Brown hailed the proposal as an important step toward opening up the telecommunications industry to more competition and innovation. He said a quarter of the airwaves will be immediately turned over to the Federal Communications Commission for allocation to private commercial interests.

“This plan has great commercial value as we attempt to construct an information superhighway that reaches all the American people,” Brown said. “It will clearly promote competition in communications, which should have the effect of driving down prices for all consumers.”

The FCC has said it hopes to raise between $7 billion and $10 billion when it begins auctioning airwaves this summer that have been designated for a new wireless technology called personal communications services.

Larry Irving, assistant secretary of commerce for communications and information, who coordinated work on the Commerce Department plan, said he does not believe that freeing up such a huge block of frequencies will depress prices for the other frequencies the FCC contemplates auctioning.

But the FCC has not yet adopted auction rules. Agency officials said they have the discretion not to auction the 200-megahertz block of government-controlled airwaves and instead allocate them by lottery or through administrative hearings.