FCC to Hill: Imperative To Seize Spectrum-Freeing Opportunity

According to testimony Julius Knapp, chief of the Federal Communications Commission's Office of Engineering & Technology, will deliver to the House Communications Subcommittee on April 12, the nation must "seize every opportunity to free up spectrum for mobile broadband."

He plans to tell Congress the FCC supports ensuring a "healthy and robust" broadcasting industry. He says the incentive auctions that Congress will need to approve before broadcasters can be compensating for giving up spectrum will be voluntary and will not come at broadcasters' expense. But the FCC's definition of voluntary includes limiting the number of stations that would have to switch frequencies, and to "limit" loss of service. "While realignment of some broadcast stations will be necessary to ensure efficient use of the spectrum freed up in an incentive auction," the FCC concedes, "our proposal seeks to limit the number of stations that would need to switch frequencies as part of the realignment process." To some broadcaster that "need" already sounds like involuntary, but the FCC points out that even though they move frequencies, they can maintain the same dial position and would get paid for their troubles. "For those that do [need to switch], we would work to limit any loss of service to over-the-air television viewers and would fully reimburse them for any costs associated with relocating," says Knapp. "No stations would be required to move from the UHF band to the VHF band unless they freely chose to do so in exchange for a share of the auction proceeds," he added. That has been a concern of broadcasters given that the VHF band is not as effective for DTV transmissions as UHF, though the FCC has promised to try to improve VHF reception.