Welcome to the FCC’s beta release of the Spectrum Dashboard. The new Spectrum Dashboard’s versatility lets you review how spectrum bands are allocated and used and also lets you identify license holders in specific areas. The initial version we release today provides plain language information of mobile broadband service frequencies between 225 MHz and 3.7 GHz. In addition, the Spectrum Dashboard contains enhanced search, mapping and data download capabilities for licenses in those broadband service bands. These enhanced research functions are currently available for licenses in 700 MHz, 800 MHz Cellular, Advanced Wireless Service, Broadband Personal Communications Service, 2.3 GHz Wireless Communications Service, Broadband Radio Service, Educational Broadband Service, Full Power TV Broadcast, and Mobile Satellite Service.
The primary source of information on frequency usage or spectrum allocation is Part 2 of the FCC rules. These rules often contain technical language and terms of art that may be difficult for the general public to understand. In contrast, the Spectrum Dashboard highlights important information from those rules using plain language to help the public understand many aspects of band use.
We want the Spectrum Dashboard to be a “one-stop shopping” portal for licensing information by combining the information currently available on separate electronic databases and filing systems. The Spectrum Dashboard repackages some of our existing data in order to make it easier to search and find allowing you to generate maps and export data more easily. Some of the ways this searching capability is now more user friendly include the following:
- You can search by a “Common Name” and get a list of all licenses held by a single company, even if the company holds licenses under many different names.
- You can get a map of all the spectrum a company holds throughout the United States or in a single county, a first-of-its-kind resource at the Commission.
- You can download the results of your searches in an easy-to-use spreadsheet format.
We are making every effort to ensure that the Spectrum Dashboard is as accurate as possible. Our plan is to update the database once a month (except for the full service television broadcast station coverage maps which are based on maps that were generated for the June 2009 DTV transition). If you would like to find out more about how we compiled the data for the Spectrum Dashboard, please take a look at the Spectrum Dashboard Details section of our on-line Help page. We also encourage licensees and other users to contact us through our eSupport link or hotline at 1-877-480-3201 or TTY 1-717-338-2824 with any questions you may have about the data in this tool.
We see the beta version of the Spectrum Dashboard as a step toward increased transparency into how spectrum is used in the United States. We need your input to help us continue developing and refining the Spectrum Dashboard. We are interested in hearing how you are using the Spectrum Dashboard and how we can improve this tool to make it more useful. Please visit our discussion links to tell us about yourself and the kinds of information you are trying to find in the Spectrum Dashboard. Let us know what functions and features in the Spectrum Dashboard you find most useful as well as what other features or functional tools you would like to see in future versions of the Spectrum Dashboard. We invite you to join the discussion and look forward to hearing from you.