FCC Unanimously Votes Not to Adopt Aggregate Interference Cap
The FCC voted 5-0 in an order not to adopt a cap on the amount of aggregate interference that broadcasters can receive after the post-incentive auction repacking (http://bit.ly/1sRxY97). The item had been set for the commission’s Friday open meeting, but was deleted from the agenda after being approved, officials said. Along with declining to adopt the cap requested by numerous broadcast commenters (see 1407080021), the item included an order adopting a methodology – called the ISIX methodology -- for calculating the interference broadcasters would receive from wireless carriers after the auction, and a Further NPRM seeking comment on that methodology once the FCC has learned from carriers how their networks will be deployed.
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Most stations won’t receive interference above the FCC’s expected 1 percent after being repacked, said officials from the Wireless Bureau and Incentive Auction Task Force in an interview Friday. The commission’s incentive auction order capped the interference a station can cause another at .5 percent, but its analysis of potential aggregate interference shows it unlikely to be a widespread problem, the officials said. To further reduce the problem, the repacking process will be set up to minimize it, and any station unduly affected will be given priority status in seeking to use translators or higher power to boost its signal, the officials said. An NAB request for a cap on the amount of population served a broadcaster can lose due to channel changes caused by the auction was not addressed in the order, they said.
To protect broadcasters from wireless interference, the order lays out a methodology for modeling potential interference so it can be minimized when stations are repacked, the officials said. Since before the auction it’s not clear how carriers will deploy their new networks, the FNPRM was added to allow that information to be incorporated into the decision-making processes, the officials said. The "principal difference between the methodology we adopt for auction use and the one we propose for use after the auction is that the latter will be based on actual 600 MHz Band wireless network deployments, whereas the former requires assumptions because networks will not be deployed yet," the order said.
“An aggregate cap would substantially complicate and slow down the reverse auction,” said Commissioner Ajit Pai in a separate statement issued with the order. Though he said he initially supported a cap, the interference order “is fair to all stakeholders” and respects the laws of physics, Pai said.