Three Spectrum Items Set for Nov. 30 Votes Hold Few Surprises So Far
Three draft FCC rulemaking items on spectrum that circulated Tuesday for a vote at this month’s meeting seem to hold few surprises for industry or commissioners, said agency and industry officials. The drafts from career agency staffers are consistent with public comments by Chairman Julius Genachowski on the items, which he has made the focus of the Nov. 30 meeting (CD Oct 21 p1), FCC officials said. The items haven’t become controversial within the agency, but commission staffers and lobbyists are just starting to focus on them, they said.
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The TV “spectrum innovation” rulemaking notice seems to pave the way for repacking of the spectrum, judging from the questions it asks and a computer model it discusses that may be forthcoming, said FCC and industry officials. The notice seems to assume there will be repacking, in which TV stations in a market are moved to a chunk of channels that’s contiguous, so the rest of the slots can be freed for wireless broadband use, they said. An FCC spokeswoman declined to comment on the spectrum items. The others are a rulemaking notice on experimental licensing and a notice of inquiry on “opportunistic use” of undeveloped airwaves.
A draft discusses a computer model that would let broadcasters see how large their service areas would be after repacking, industry and commission officials said. The program would determine the protected service area that would be reached by a broadcaster’s signal, suggesting that the regulator is contemplating reducing the size of the area in any repacking, said a lawyer with TV station clients. The item also asks about repacking and contains much technical detail, agency officials said.
The notice seeks comment “on rules to facilitate the most efficient use of the UHF and VHF TV bands,” the FCC said Nov. 4. “These proposals, an important step toward the agency’s spectrum goals as outlined in the National Broadband Plan, would remove a host of obstacles to mobile broadband use within spectrum currently reserved for use by TV broadcasters, including through innovations such as channel sharing and generating increased value within the VHF band.” The item likely asks about channel sharing and how to improve signal reception in the VHF band, which has had more problems than UHF, said another attorney with TV station clients.
Several FCC officials agreed the three notices offer no surprises, at least at first glance. Changes that may be requested by commissioners in the lead-up to the Nov. 30 meeting likely will be relatively minor edits, an agency official said. “We're taking a wait and see attitude,” said a wireless carrier source. “I don’t think you're going to a see a lot” of lobbying at the commission “on this before the meeting.”