NAB’s language for a possible ATSC 3.0 simulcasting requirement would “permit widespread service loss,” said the American Cable Association, AT&T, Charter Communications, Dish Network and Verizon in a meeting for the American Television Alliance with Chief Michelle Carey and others in the Media Bureau Tuesday, said a filing posted Friday in docket 16-142. Though ATVA said it’s pleased broadcasters now seem willing to accept a simulcasting requirement (see 1709110032), the pay-TV ally said there’s no evidence to back an NAB proposal that the requirement sunset in three years, and the agency should require the simulcasts to be “the same” instead of “substantially similar” as NAB proposed. ATVA said NAB-proposed exceptions to the sameness requirement, such as for locally targeted commercials, were largely reasonable. The FCC should also block broadcasters from simulcasting only the least popular content, ATVA said. “If a station transmits a FOX affiliate and a home shopping channel on ATSC 3.0, nobody will be happy if the station simulcasts only the home shopping channel on ATSC 1.0.” The FCC should require simulcast broadcasts be of a certain quality level, that broadcasters give notice of the transition to viewers and MVPDs, and require that the simulcast broadcasts reach a specific percentage of the station’s coverage area, ATVA said. It’s pleased NAB proposed broadcasters rely on A/321 and A/322 and opposed an NAB proposal to allow low-power TV stations to flash cut. “We are cautiously optimistic to see what appears to be an emerging consensus on issues related to simulcasting,” ATVA said.
Lack of qualified tower crews will start delaying projects and affecting subsequent phases by the end of Phase 2 of the repacking, American Tower Corp. told FCC Incentive Auction Task Force Chair Jean Kiddoo and IATF staff Tuesday, recounted a filing in docket 16-306. ATC said the tower company and broadcasters made progress in repack efforts, but stations are “limited by the number of qualified broadcast tower crews.” The presentation pointed to a lack of qualified RF engineers as limiting the ability of broadcasters to meet the 39-month repack timeline. The large number of complex projects in Phase 2 “presents a major challenge to ATC and those affected repack stations,” the company said. ATSC 3.0 won’t impact the schedule, it said, and a “majority” of repacked broadcasters are “adding vertical polarization to their new channel antennas in anticipation of conversion" to 3.0. ATC said it and broadcasters are “waiting on the release of reimbursement funding approvals to fully engage material vendors and construction crews.”
Add Qualcomm and Ethertronics, a supplier of embedded antennas and RF components for mobile devices, to companies opposing an ATSC 3.0 reception in smartphones requirement and saying an FCC mandate would be a bad idea. The issue has been a hotbed for discussion in docket 16-142 for the past 10 days as the commission works toward meeting its self-imposed deadline of releasing by year-end an order authorizing voluntary deployment of 3.0 (see 1709180039). Qualcomm “broadly agrees” with T-Mobile’s Sept. 11 white paper (see 1709120020) detailing “significant challenges associated with supporting ATSC 3.0 reception in new mobile devices.” The chipmaker said “any proposal to mandate that mobile devices incorporate support for ATSC 3.0 should be out of the question.” Requiring 3.0 support in mobile devices “would unduly impact device performance, the efficient use of spectrum, and mobile device competition,” said the company. “ATSC 3.0 receiver operation can cause interference to 4G LTE and 5G radios operating in the same device." Ethertronics said challenges of “incorporating both 600 MHz LTE and ATSC 3.0 technologies” in a single smartphone are “substantial.” There are “practical limits to the acceptable size” of a mobile device that consumers will be “willing to purchase,” it said.
Many questions remain about what happens to smartphones after they're stolen, Brian Daly, AT&T chief technology officer-strategic standards, told the FCC Technological Advisory Council quarterly meeting Tuesday. Daly co-chairs the mobile device theft prevention work group, focused on one of the key issues before TAC the past few years. TAC got updates Tuesday from its working groups in a meeting at the FCC with work in progress on final reports.
Sinclair’s proposed buy of Tribune didn’t get special FCC treatment, said Chairman Ajit Pai in a letter released Tuesday responding to correspondence from House Commerce ranking member Frank Pallone, D-N.J., House Communications Subcommittee ranking member Mike Doyle, D-Pa., and House Commerce Oversight Subcommittee ranking member Diana DeGette, D-Colo. (see 1708140058). “My actions have been motivated by my belief that a strong over the air broadcast service advances the public interest," Pai said. “They have not been fueled by a desire to help any particular company.”
Nokia added its voice to the growing chorus of handset makers that oppose a possible FCC mandate for ATSC 3.0 reception in smartphones, though the commission hasn't proposed one. “Such a mandate would present technical challenges and disserve the public interest,” said Nokia in a letter posted Friday in docket 16-142. Nokia, which sold its smartphone business to Microsoft, joins Ericsson and Motorola in arguing that 3.0 reception in smartphones is a bad idea because it would require handset form-factor changes that consumers would reject or would degrade cellular coverage performance (see 1709150039 and 1709130050). T-Mobile was the first to cite its opposition, alleging Sinclair is oversimplifying the complexities of building 3.0 into smartphones, and a mandate wouldn't serve the public interest (see 1709120020). Sinclair denies seeking a mandate but said overcoming complexities of 3.0 in smartphones is a worthy challenge. The FCC has a self-imposed deadline of a 2017 order authorizing 3.0 as a final voluntary standard (see 1702230060). Nokia is “actively working with several carriers to supply equipment for expeditious deployment of networks” supporting the 600 MHz band, the company wrote. For smartphones to receive 3.0, they would need to operate at “additional frequencies, possibly as low as 470 MHz,” Nokia said. If the same antenna is used to receive 3.0 signals in the 470-608 MHz band in addition to the 600 MHz band, “antenna performance is likely to degrade,” it said. “This antenna performance degradation can directly translate into significant loss in the coverage benefit typically provided by these lower frequencies.” Whatever “limited physical space” exists in a smartphone “should be available for more valuable uses than ATSC 3.0,” such as MIMO operation, for which there exists “very valid business justification,” said the company. “A new antenna design” will be needed, it said. “The ATSC 3.0 chip will also need to be accommodated on the device next to the cellular circuitry. The ATSC 3.0 receiver chain will need to be isolated from the cellular receiver chain to mitigate any interference issues.”
The FCC Media Bureau request for more information on Sinclair buying Tribune isn’t a sign of increased scrutiny or hostility toward the deal at the agency (see 1709150041), industry analysts and even opponents of the transaction said in interviews Monday. The information request asked for specifics about many issues that have been raised by opposition group Coalition to Save Local Media (see 1708300053) but is seen to be motivated by procedural concerns rather than FCC agreement with critics of the deal, industry officials said.
The FCC Media Bureau wants more information from Sinclair and Tribune on how their proposed deal would be brought into compliance with ownership rules and specifics on the deal’s effects on news coverage at Tribune’s stations, Media Bureau Chief Michelle Carey told the companies in a letter last week. The broadcasters need to describe what “specific steps” the companies will take to comply with the national ownership cap and duopoly rules, she said. As filed, the deal would be 6.5 percent over the cap, and would include overlaps in several markets that wouldn’t be in compliance with ownership rules. Opponents asked the FCC to require more information of Sinclair/Tribune when the transaction was first filed, but the agency denied those requests (see 1708040002). Since then, a perceived lack of specifics about divestitures and the public interest benefits of the deal have been targets of foes (see 1708080067). Many of the public interest benefits listed by Sinclair were based on expanded news coverage, and the information request seeks more precise information about the new company’s plans for local news. The bureau wants information on plans to add local programming and local newscasts to Tribune stations, increase coverage of local government, and to “increase or decrease” the number of journalists and investigative reporters at Tribune stations. Carey also asked for details on how the deal would increase the efficiency of implementing ATSC 3.0, and the impact of the new company’s greater audience reach. The Coalition to Save Local Media praised “scrutiny” of the deal, saying the FCC request would help answer “questions raised by interested parties as well as Members of Congress that have gone unanswered.” The group, which includes Public Knowledge, Dish Network, the Competitive Carriers Association and the Blaze, said that “the FCC and Department of Justice should closely scrutinize this merger and deny it.” Sinclair didn’t comment. After a speech Friday to the Center for Democracy & Technology (see 1709150062), Chairman Ajit Pai declined to comment on the letter, other than to say it "speaks for itself."
T-Mobile Chief Technology Officer Neville Ray met with FCC Chairman Ajit Pai and Commissioners Mignon Clyburn, Mike O’Rielly and Brendan Carr on the big issues now before the agency of most concern to the company, said a filing in dockets including 12-268. Efforts to deploy incentive auction spectrum and concerns about ATSC 3.0 were among the topics covered. It's important to have "sufficient spectrum in the low, mid, and high bands to support competitive 5G deployments,” T-Mobile said. “The existing 3.5 GHz framework should be revised because the current structure will not drive investment and does not align with international use of the band for 5G. ... [T]he 3.5 GHz spectrum is a core band for 5G deployment around the world and ... the U.S. will miss a huge opportunity if it does not create a structure aligned with global 5G requirements.”
Days after Sinclair struck back against a T-Mobile “technical white paper” filed at the FCC that accused the broadcaster of oversimplifying the complexities of building ATSC 3.0 reception into smartphones (see 1709130050), Ericsson came to T-Mobile’s defense. Ericsson offered “additional comments” why it thinks those complexities would make a 3.0 mandate in smartphones a bad idea, even though the commission hasn’t proposed one and few commenters in the 3.0 proceeding have. The T-Mobile paper also drew the wrath of the AWARN Alliance, which accused the carrier of flip-flopping when it called 3.0-based emergency alerting “inferior” to that of the wireless industry's wireless emergency alerts (WEA) platform.