WASHINGTON-In a move expected to make spectrum available to commercial operators sooner, the FCC’s Media Bureau is proposing to move the digital TV transition date back to 2009.
The proposal aims to replace foggy rules that exist today with a concrete date. As it stands now, broadcasters must give back their analog spectrum on Jan. 1, 2007, or when 85 percent of the homes in their license areas can receive digital signals, whichever is later. However, it likely will be at least several years before most markets reach that threshold if the Federal Communications Commission counts only homes with either a digital TV or digital set-top box.
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 entire digital signals carried by cable operators instead of the current rule, which requires cable operators to carry only broadcasters’ analog signals. The cable company then would choose whether to broadcast only in digital and require its customers to obtain (either through purchase or giveaway) a digital set-top box or to download the broadcaster’s digital signal into an analog signal.
Either way, the broadcaster would be broadcasting in digital and “85 percent” of the homes in its market would be capable of receiving a digital signal, and the broadcaster would be required to give back its analog signal as of Jan. 1, 2009, said Media Bureau Chief Ken Ferree at a press conference last week.
In other words, commercial wireless carriers, which have long coveted the 700 MHz band, could purchase this spectrum at auction knowing they would have access to it in 2009. Some of the spectrum has already been auctioned, and winning bidders are chopping at the bit to make use of it.
Public safety is also anxiously waiting for the broadcasters to leave the band because Congress said in 1997 that the FCC had to set aside 24 megahertz of spectrum for public-safety use, and that some of the spectrum must be used to create an interoperable system. At the time, Congress was reacting to the Oklahoma City bombing. However, in the aftermath of Sept. 11, 2001, tragedy, the need for interoperable public-safety communications has received even more attention.
After public safety receives its slice of spectrum, 66 megahertz of spectrum is left, all of which has been allotted for commercial use. Some of the spectrum already has been auctioned, including a six-megahertz guard band between the public safety and commercial allocations and some spectrum in the lower 700 MHz band, some of which Qualcomm Inc. won using its Pioneer’s Preference bidding credit.
However, uncertainty over when winning bidders would gain access to the frequencies led the wireless industry to get Congress to pass legislation to indefinitely postpone auctioning the rest of the band. Mobile-phone operators have asked who would buy a house if there was no guarantee that the current occupants would move out.
The Media Bureau has briefed each of the five FCC members at least once on this issue, said Ferree. Once he has the “thumbs up from three or more” of the commissioners, he will direct the Media Bureau to begin writing the rules. The commission does not have to put the idea out for comment as there are two open proceedings already going on concerning digital TV.
It is assumed broadcasters, which have fought to keep the spectrum as long as possible, will not embrace the bureau’s 2009 proposal. “They would rather eat their children than give up their spectrum,” said Ferree. “They will hold onto this spectrum until their dying date. I don’t blame them.”
Ferree said he has also been briefing Capitol Hill, where many lawmakers expressed concern regarding the 15 percent of Americans who only receive TV signals from free over-the-air broadcasting and who may face a financial burden with the transition to DTV.
The idea of a hard date is welcome news to the 700 MHz Advancement Coalition, which includes Qualcomm and others that have bought and paid for spectrum in the TV bands.
The Cellular Telecommunications & Internet Association seems warm to any idea that will spur the DTV transition. “While we are not familiar with details of the Media Bureau proposal, we do like to see creative problem solving from the FCC. Right now, the 700 MHz band is being used for `Cops’ re-runs, when those airwaves should be put in the hands of real cops in the field. The broadcasters, who have dragged their feet on this transition, are the bad boys of spectrum policy, and clearing them from this spectrum as soon as possible to make room for public safety is the right thing to do,” said CTIA spokesman Travis Larson.
Another idea may be on the horizon. The 700 MHz Advancement Coalition said there is an efficient way that they can use their spectrum today without impacting existing DTV operations, but the group would not offer any details.
