DTV Transition & Media Reform

This paper takes account of new information to update an earlier New America Issue Brief by the same authors: “Why Unlicensed Use of the White Space in the TV Bands Will Not Cause Interference to DTV Viewers” (October 2005).

On June 28, the Senate Commerce Committee marked up and adopted comprehensive telecom reform legislation (S. 2686, “The Advanced Telecommunications and Opportunity Reform Act of 2006”). The legislation included a provision (Title VI, “The Wireless Innovation Act of 2006”) directing… more

OVERVIEW

In both their comments and reply comments, broadcasters seeking expanded coverage via distributed transmission system technologies (DTS) continue to fail to acknowledge the huge opportunity costs associated with the massive expansion in geographic service area rights that they are requesting. NAF et al. described these opportunity costs in its own comments and sees no reason to repeat itself here.

Broadcasters also continue to assert that expanded geographic service area rights will result in large benefits for the public; for… more

April 6, 2006

The Honorable Marsha BlackburnU.S. House of Representatives Washington, D.C 20515

The Honorable Jay Inslee U.S. House of Representatives Washington, D.C 20515

The Honorable Tammy Baldwin U.S. House of Representatives Washington, D.C 20515

Dear Representatives Blackburn, Inslee and Baldwin:

Thank you for your leadership in introducing the American Broadband for Communications Act and for your commitment to finding solutions to the problem of inadequate access to highspeed Internet for consumers in rural… more

In November 2002, the FCC’s Spectrum Policy Task Force released a report calling for shifting large amounts of spectrum from the current command and control allocation system to both unlicensed and licensed flexible-use service. Since then, the FCC has started numerous proceedings to follow through on these recommendations. But whereas the proceedings granting flexible use to incumbent license holders and others have been fast tracked and completed, the proceedings seeking to allocate more unlicensed spectrum have, with only one… more

On May 12, 2004, the FCC issued a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) proposing unlicensed use of unused TV channels 2-to-51 (Docket 04-186). When the DTV transition ends in early 2009, most of the nation’s 210 TV markets will have between 10 and 40 unassigned channels reserved for broadcasting, but not in use. The FCC proposal would allow a new generation of wireless broadband devices to utilize the vacant TV channels in each local market for WiFi and other unlicensed… more

SUMMARY

In the above-captioned DTS NPRM, the Commission continues its unfortunate habit of making major policy decisions in a piecemeal fashion that ill-serves the public. The proposed “technical” rules will settle valuable spectrum access privileges, while permitting larger “policy” questions to languish. The current proceeding, spun off from the much larger comprehensive Second Periodic Review of the Commission’s Rules Affecting the Conversion to Digital Television, 19 FCCRcd 18279 (2004), purports to address only a modest technical question raised in the digital… more

The full version of this document (69 pp.), as well as a summary (2 pp.), are available in the attached PDF documents below.

At its recent markup, the House Commerce Committee included language in the digital TV transition bill directing the FCC to complete its proposed rulemaking to open up vacant, unused channels in the TV band spectrum (so-called "white space") for unlicensed wireless broadband use (Docket 04-186).

The reallocation of prime airwaves from "broadcast to broadband" has been a major impetus behind DTV legislation. In May 2004, the FCC issued a proposed rulemaking to allow "smart" wireless broadband devices to… more

From the fire fighters who died on 9/11 to the rescue workers struggling to help victims of Hurricane Katrina, the absence of reliable and interoperable voice and data communications among public safety agencies has become an urgent national dilemma. Within the coming weeks, the Senate Commerce Committee will mark up DTV legislation likely to impose a hard deadline on the clearance of TV channels 52 to 69 -- freeing up precious spectrum for public safety voice interoperability and for… more

On May 13, 2004, the Federal Communications Commission approved a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) proposing to allow a new generation of wireless devices to utilize vacant television channel frequencies in each market. This so-called TV band “white space” consists of frequencies that are allocated for television broadcasting but are not actually in use in a given area. The FCC’s proposed rulemaking is pending but currently inactive.

The proposed rules are intended to make way for technologies that utilize unlicensed… more