Working Together on the Post-Incentive-Auction Broadcaster Transition

[Commentary] Making history is exciting, but it’s not easy. In the first-ever incentive auction, participating broadcasters will voluntarily relinquish spectrum rights in exchange for a share of the proceeds, and the recovered spectrum will be sold for wireless broadband use.

The remaining broadcast spectrum will be “repacked,” which means that some broadcasters who remain on the air will be given new channel assignments. That last step may sound anticlimactic, but getting it right will take the concerted efforts of everyone involved. Together we’ll need to craft policies and procedures to transition the broadcasters with as little disruption to the industry and consumers as possible.

That’s why we released for public comment a report that the FCC commissioned from a spectrum consulting firm, Widelity, to help us understand the process and costs associated with the post-auction transition.

[Lake is Chief of the FCC’s Media Bureau]