‘The marketplace has done very well without mandatory receiver st...

were lack of receiver standards (CD Oct 31 p1). Shapiro said he found remarks surprising, given Powell’s reputation as free-market advocate but hedged his comments pending an opportunity to review speech text. He said he was reluctant to interpret Powell’s message, including whether call for receiver standards applied to licensed or unlicensed spectrum or both. “People will accept a $5 or $6 clock radio on the knowledge that it’s not the best receiving device because it works and it’s very inexpensive,” Shapiro said. “If you start creating standards for something like that, prices could go up enormously, so there’s the trade-off there between performance and price, and everyone knows that.” Shapiro said CEA had found there were “a lot more products” operating in unlicensed spectrum area “than anybody ever thought,” and it had reported those findings in FCC filing in last several months. “So we've been encouraging the FCC to expand the unlicensed spectrum area because it gives an opportunity for the creation of all sorts of new products we can’t even conceive of today.” Shapiro said Powell was correct in saying emerging technologies were becoming more tolerant of interference through sensory and adaptive techniques than legacy devices. “It’s true that technology is always improving,” Shapiro said: “The problem with performance standards is the cost and the fact that the technology changes. Consumers are pretty understanding of the trade-off between price and performance. At least in the unlicensed area, the concept of standards would be novel, because the marketplace handles it.” As for devices in licensed spectrum, Shapiro said, FCC under law lacks authority to set performance standards. “If Chairman Powell is advocating that the law be changed, obviously that’s not something we would agree with.” NAB Gen. Counsel Jack Goodman said it could be argued FCC to some degree already had set up TV receiver standards by ordering TVs in future to have digital tuners, which would improve receivers. He also said it was unclear whether Powell was reaching into TV space. Goodman said wireless and TV really were different environments: “I don’t think it was clear from that alone that that’s where he was going, but it’s certainly something to consider.” NAB has long advocated receiver standards because of its concerns about interference. FCC spokeswoman said Powell’s speech spoke for itself and was specific to wireless.