1. Monthly archive
  2. January 2016

January 2016

Court Won't Force FCC Action on LPTV Decision

A federal court has denied a request by low-power TV (LPTV) station owners to force the Federal Communications Commission to rule on their request to participate in the incentive auction. That came after the FCC signaled a decision would be forthcoming and there were still legal avenues for those LPTVs before the auction launches. The LPTV owners—The Videohouse, Fifth Street Enterprises, LLC, and WMTM, LLC—wanted the FCC to reconsider its decision not to protect their signals in the post incentive auction repack or participate in the auction because they did not file their applications for Class A status until after a February 2012 deadline for doing so. But the court did say it expects the FCC to act on the request in time for the parties to seek judicial review of that decision before the March 29 launch of the incentive auction. Only Class A low powers can be protected in the repack.

The owners had asked the court to direct the FCC to decide by Jan 4, given that the deadline for applying to put spectrum in the auction is Jan. 12, but the court said that the FCC's delay in deciding on the petition—which was filed in September—was not "so unreasonable" as to justify the "extraordinary" remedy of mandamus, essentially a judicial command. The three-judge panel of the US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit said that based on the FCC's response to the petition for that writ of mandamus, it expected it to rule promptly to allow that review before March 29.

Fate of Over-the-Air Broadcast TV Hangs in the Balance in 2016

[Commentary] It's difficult to pinpoint any single year in the history of television broadcasting more momentous than 2016 is likely to be. And when I say broadcasting, I mean the medium, not the business of assembling a linear TV channel of national and local (mostly news) programming and supporting it with revenue from advertising and retransmission consent fees. This is the year in which policymakers and broadcasters will decide whether the medium is worth preserving, whether it is worth its weight in spectrum, whether it is worth a major investment to upgrade.

The decision will come in the way they conduct themselves in the repacking of the TV band that will follow the incentive auction this spring and how far they go in embracing the next-generation broadcast TV system known as ATSC 3.0 that is just about ready to go. If all goes according to plan, in the incentive auction the Federal Communications Commission will buy a big swath of TV spectrum and sell it to wireless broadband companies. In the process, it will eliminate as many as 400 full-power TV stations that choose to sell or double up on other channels. That, in turn, will trigger the start of a forced mass migration of between 800 and 1,200 of the remaining TV stations to new channels as the FCC repacks the old TV band to segregate broadcasting and wireless so they don't interfere with each other. Congress has commanded that the FCC make "all reasonable" efforts" to insure that the TV stations enjoy the same coverage on their news channels as they had on their old ones.

Chief of Staff to FCC Commissioner Clyburn Exits

Chanelle Hardy, chief of staff and media legal advisor to Commissioner Mignon Clyburn of the Federal Communications Commission has left the FCC, apparently, with an announcement expected soon. Succeeding her will be Holly Saurer, who has been detailed on a temporary basis from the Media Bureau, where she is associate bureau chief.

Hardy had been chief of staff since May 1, when she succeeded Adonis Hoffman. She had been senior VP for policy at the National Urban League and director of its Washington bureau. There have been rumblings inside and outside the building that Commissioner Clyburn might want to exit the FCC to run for her father's, Rep James Clyburn (D-SC), seat in Congress, though a source close to the commissioner had downplayed that.

There's a new type of Wi-Fi, and it's designed to connect your smart home

The Wi-Fi Alliance is announcing a new type of Wi-Fi that's meant to work on low-power devices. It'll travel farther and even do a better job of traveling through walls. Basically, it's an all around better option for smart home and Internet of Things (IoT) devices, at least if these claims hold up. The new type of Wi-Fi is being called Wi-Fi HaLow (pronounced "halo") and will be an extension of the upcoming 802.11ah standard. The Wi-Fi Alliance intends to begin certifying HaLow products sometime in 2018, but the first of them may begin shipping shortly before then. Essentially, this is Wi-Fi's answer to Bluetooth. If HaLow really can do what the alliance says it can, it would be a big deal.

It's essentially promising to do everything Bluetooth can, but at a longer range and with the ability to connect directly to your router, and therefore the Internet. You should be skeptical of whether it can pull that off, but HaLow has the advantage of building on top of an enormously successful existing standard. Our phones and routers will need upgraded Wi-Fi chips to work with HaLow products, but presumably that'll come in time, just as 5GHz Wi-Fi quickly arrived after its introduction. The reason that HaLow seems to have Wi-Fi superpowers is that it's operating on a much better slice of spectrum. It'll be in the 900MHz range, which has better reach and penetration than the 2.4GHz and 5GHz range that existing Wi-Fi operates in. But, like existing Wi-Fi, it'll be in operating in unlicensed spectrum, so there may be interferences.

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