At a meeting of the Commerce Spectrum Management Advisory Committee (CSMAC) in Boulder, Colorado this week, the “Search for 500 MHz” working group (WG) unveiled an interim report that supports reallocating the 1755-1850 MHz band for commercial services. The 1755-1780 MHz portion of the band would be the highest priority for reallocation, while reallocation of the remainder of the spectrum would be a longer term priority designed to allow more time to develop government relocation and sharing arrangements and to allow for the development of options for pairing the spectrum with other frequency bands. The WG also laid out principles for the band that would favor relocating incumbent Federal government operations entirely out of the band, rather than relocating them into the upper portion of the band. These principles would also limit sharing to short or medium term where necessary, and would only permit long-term sharing to cases where relocation of Federal government incumbents is not possible and where commercial operations would continue to have substantial access to the spectrum. Finally, the WG reported that there was no simple answer to quantifying how much interference that would be acceptable for commercial operations that would be using the band. Instead, the WG recommended case-by-case study of the impact of potential interference. In addition, the WG discouraged the Federal government from instituting exclusion zones as a way of coordinating operations, because such exclusion zones would decrease the value of the spectrum at auction. For more information about the WG Interim Report or for information about other reports during the CSMAC meeting, contact the UTC Legal/Regulatory Department.