AT&T, Verizon, Sprint, T-Mobile and broadcasters warn FCC about interference issues in 600 MHz auction

The Federal Communications Commission's incentive auction of 600 MHz broadcast TV spectrum is scheduled to start in 2016, and many technical rules need to be resolved between now and then. However, wireless carriers and broadcasters seem to be unified on one key issue: They want the FCC to change its plans for dealing with "impaired" spectrum, or spectrum that will have too much interference to be used. Specifically, carriers, CTIA and broadcasters alike are taking issue with the FCC's proposal to impair up to 20 percent of the spectrum that carriers will bid on. The FCC will impair the spectrum on an aggregated, weighted and nationwide basis.

"There is a striking consensus, cutting across all stakeholders, that the placement of TV stations in the 600 MHz LTE band will spread impairment throughout the national band plan, with impairments especially likely (and especially extensive) in the largest markets that are key to the success of the auction," AT&T noted in its comments. "The commenters broadly recognize that such impairments will reduce the quality, usefulness, and quantity of the auctioned spectrum." The larger issue, according to AT&T, is that carriers bidding on the spectrum will not know how impaired the spectrum they may win will be, or in what way it will be impaired. That will force bidders to reduce the amount they will bid to account for the possibility that they will end up with spectrum that is less usable. That, in turn, will further reduce the amount of spectrum that the FCC can clear in the auction.