WASHINGTON-The broadcast industry is fighting a proposal that would reserve vacant TV channels for unlicensed uses following the transition to digital TV.
“The fact that you don’t see anyone operating on a particular channel does not necessarily mean it’s vacant. We can get into a debate about what’s vacant and what isn’t, but it fundamentally depends on how you define vacant,” said David Donovon, president of Maximum Service TV, an association for local TV broadcasters.
For example, Donovon said that an analysis released by the New America Foundation and Free Press is inaccurate when it says Boston would have available spectrum in channels 2 to 51 once the DTV transition is completed. The New America Foundation/Free Press study, released at a Capitol Hill event, showed that nearly every TV market has some unassigned channels-therefore unused spectrum.
For example, in Juneau, Alaska-home to Sen. Ted Stevens, Republican chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee-74 percent of the DTV broadcast spectrum would be unused following the transition to DTV, according to the study. The study also found that 40 percent of the spectrum available in Dallas/Fort Worth, Texas-the home to Rep. Joe Barton, Republican chairman of the House Commerce Committee-would be vacant.
However, interference could still be a problem if local TV markets are close to each other geographically, Donovon said. For example, someone living in the Maryland suburbs of Washington, D.C., could get a signal from both the D.C. local station and the Baltimore local station. Donovon thinks that means both the D.C. allocations and the Baltimore allocations are being used. NAF and the high-tech industry believe that only the D.C. allocation should apply to the D.C. market. This problem is more obvious on the East Coast, where TV markets are closer together than in other areas of the country.
NAF and the high-tech industry believe that smart devices using software-defined radio technology would be able to use this spectrum without causing interference to TV, but Donovon rejected the “trust us” argument. “The real world is vastly different from what you see in the lab or what you expect,” he said.
But Cisco Systems Inc., which hopes to have unlicensed devices operating in the 5 GHz band next year, thinks it knows how to protect against interference. The 5 GHz band is slated for unlicensed operations as long as military radar is protected. The technical parameters of some of those radar systems are classified so Cisco has been working with the government to come up with commercial radios that would eliminate interference.
“Cisco expects to have devices on the market next year that will solve problems with military radars, and if we can do that, we can certainly solve problems in the TV band,” said Mary Brown, Cisco senior telecommunications policy counsel.
The TV white space proceeding at the Federal Communications Commission is heating up as the transition to digital TV begins in earnest. As part of the House Commerce Committee’s consideration of the DTV Transition Act of 2005, language was included directing the FCC to complete TV white space rules within one year. Congress is considering a hard date for the DTV transition as part of the 2006 budget reconciliation process. The House passed its version of budget reconciliation Nov. 17. The House bill sets the DTV hard date at Dec. 31, 2008, with the auction starting Jan. 7, 2009. The Senate has passed its budget reconciliation bill setting the hard date at April 7, 2009, with the auction starting Jan. 28, 2008.
The two versions have to be reconciled or changed since both chambers must pass identical bills. While the DTV hard date has not been contentious, the rest of the budget, which contains cuts in social programs and tax provisions, is controversial. This means final passage of the hard date is anything but certain. Congress is expected to return sometime in December to consider the final budget agreement.
Trying to free up white space is a consolation prize for players like The New America Foundation, which wanted one-third of the freed spectrum set aside for unlicensed uses.
Congress has not specifically decided what to do with 48 megahertz of unallocated spectrum that should be available once broadcasters return the channels to government. Congress already dictated that 24 megahertz be given to public safety and 36 megahertz auctioned to commercial services. Both the House and Senate budget bills assume the spectrum, minus the 24 megahertz for public safety, will be auctioned. RCR
