WASHINGTON-FCC Chairman Michael Powell called on Congress to codify the agency’s recently adopted plan to solve public-safety interference in the 800 MHz band.
Such a move would mean that Nextel Communications Inc. would not have to approve the measure to swap spectrum so Nextel’s commercial system would not interfere with public-safety networks and Verizon Wireless could not sue on the grounds that the Federal Communications Commission violated the Communications Act by not auctioning spectrum in the 1.9 GHz band.
Powell suggested to reporters following his appearance before the Senate Commerce Committee that language could be easily passed to say that notwithstanding any other provision of law, the FCC’s action is the law of the land.
If Congress passed the Powell language, the FCC, Nextel and the public-safety community could move forward with the reconfiguration of the 800 MHz band without waiting to see if a court would overturn the FCC’s plan. The FCC has long cautioned that however it decided to fix the 800 MHz public-safety interference problem, it would be appealed.
The subject of the Senate Commerce Committee hearing was clearing the 700 MHz band of TV broadcasters so that public-safety can have access to 24 megahertz of spectrum allocated to them in the Balanced Budget Act of 1997. The Homeland Emergency Response Operations Act, commonly known as the Hero Act introduced in March 2003 by Reps. Harman and Weldon, has been endorsed by the 9/11 Commission.
“In order to meet the Hero Act’s Dec. 31, 2006, deadline, 40 broadcast stations (36 analog and four digital) currently broadcasting on this spectrum on channels 63, 64, 68, 69 would be required to vacate these channels. In many of these markets, there is no available spectrum for station relocation, meaning the legislation may force some stations to cease over-the-air broadcasting,” said Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee. McCain has introduced legislation to codify the 40 recommendations found in the 9/11 Commission Report.
McCain told reporters after the hearing that the main priority is considering recommendations by the 9/11 Commission Report but that he is not opposed to Powell’s idea for legislation to codify the 800 MHz rebanding plan.
The FCC in July adopted a plan to solve the interference problem, swap some spectrum with Nextel and have Nextel pay to move other companies off the spectrum band Nextel would receive. The FCC released the text of the plan-nearly 300 pages-in early August. It has yet to be published in the Federal Register. Nextel has 30 days from publication in the Federal Register to say whether it will agree to the plan. Accompanying Powell at the hearing, Bryan Tramont, FCC chief of staff, said Federal Register publication would come “soon.”
On the issue of clearing the 700 MHz band, one broadcaster would not commit to a hard date for clearing the band.
“I can’t tell you when the Second Coming of Jesus Christ will be, and I can’t tell you when it will be practical to turn off the analog stations,” said Lowell “Bud” Paxson, chairman and chief executive officer of Paxson Communications Corp.
Congress dictated that 24 megahertz of the returned spectrum be allocated to public safety with a portion going to interoperability. The rest was to be auctioned. The FCC has auctioned some spectrum, but the mobile-phone industry has pressed the government to not hold any more auctions until a hard date to end the transition is set.
Congress set Dec. 31, 2006, as the date for the DTV transition to be complete, but gave the broadcasters a huge loophole. Broadcasters are not required to return the 6 megahertz of spectrum they were given to facilitate the transition until 85 percent of the homes in their viewing areas are capable of receiving a digital signal, but technically they must ask for an extension.
During the hearing, Powell endorsed an FCC Media Bureau proposal that would set Jan. 1, 2009, as the end of the transition.
The Media Bureau proposal gets at the heart of the relationship between broadcasters and cable operators. It would allow broadcasters in October 2008 to elect to have their digital signal carried by cable operators instead of the current rule, which requires cable operators to carry only broadcasters’ analog signals. Cable companies then would choose whether to broadcast only in digital and require customers to obtain digital set-top boxes or download a broadcaster’s digital signal into an analog signal.
Either way, a broadcaster would be broadcasting in digital and “85 percent” of the homes in its market would be capable of receiving digital signals, and the broadcaster would be required to give back its spectrum used to transmit its analog signal as of Jan. 1, 2009.