U.S. policies on spectrum management affect deployment of WiMax and other wireless broadband technologies.

NTIA issued a in March 2008.

Kneuer warns that the consequences of state and local government agencies not having enough radio frequency spectrum for emergency response and other applications could be dire.

"If spectrum processes break down, and federal first responders don't have coordinated access to enough spectrum to interoperate with state and local government agencies, that will affect a critical government mission," Kneuer says. "The new team at NTIA needs to think about how they're going to spend [billions] in broadband infrastructure grants...But they also need to make sure they are preserving enough of management bandwidth to deal with DNS and spectrum issues."

Locke's confirmation as Commerce Secretary is not guaranteed. Obama's first two picks for Commerce Secretary -- Gov. Bill Richardson (D) from New Mexico and New Hampshire Sen. Judd Gregg (R) -- both withdrew their nominations.