New America
Urges FCC to Reconsider Giveaway of Spectrum Rights at the Expense of
Affordable Broadband
This week, the New America Foundation and Media Access
Project submitted comments—on behalf of 19 other prominent public
interest groups and community broadband providers—in the FCC’s
pending proceeding on the broadcast industry’s push to implement a
Digital Television Distributed Transmission System (DTS), Docket 05-312.
Yet again, the Commission is proposing to potentially
give away billions of dollars in valuable spectrum rights to broadcasters at
the expense of the public—and to deny the use of currently wasted TV band
spectrum for WiFi and local wireless broadband networks. The
implications of the rulemaking on broadcasters’ utilization of the public
airwaves are great—and carry enormous untold opportunity costs in the
form of diminished spectrum availability for affordable broadband service which could
be deployed on vacant TV channels under another, now stalled, FCC
rulemaking (Docket 04-186).
Under the FCC’s proposed rulemaking, broadcasters
would be given free reign to supplement their single high-power transmitters
with networks of synchronized low-power devices. The FCC and the broadcast
lobby frame this as a purely technical issue meant to increase broadcast
coverage and provide better-quality service to over-the-air television viewers.
In reality, it's a spectrum grab by licensees that serve a dwindling minority
of U.S.
households (only 13% of homes rely on over-the-air signals for primary TV
reception).
The NAF/MAP comments urge the FCC to carefully consider how DTS technology
would impact the availability of “white space”—unutilized
spectrum in the TV band that could be used to provide unlicensed broadband
service under Docket 04-186. The FCC must weigh the cost of increasing the
value of broadcasters’ licenses against its stated goal of encouraging
the deployment of affordable broadband services. The comments also argue that
if the Commission moves to allow broadcasters to implement DTS and increase
their coverage area, it should at least require an increase in public interest
obligations from broadcasters commensurate with the increase in value to their licenses.
We encourage you to take a look at the comments, located here.
Once again, thanks for your time and attention to these important matters.
www.spectrumpolicy.org
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