NAB Sees 'Red Flag' In CTIA Commence Operations Proposal
A CTIA proposal to change the conditions under which broadcasters must vacate their sold 600 MHz spectrum after the incentive auction to make way for the new wireless owners (see 1509100072) isn't as limited as the wireless organization is making it out to be, said an NAB spokesman. The FCC proposal is to require low-power TV stations to leave their former spectrum once the wireless licensee “commences operations” -- setting up permanent facilities and antennas. That plan won't allow for market testing that is “integral to the deployment of broadband,” said CTIA Vice President-Regulatory Affairs Scott Bergmann in an interview. Instead, CTIA wants the commission to define the commencement of operations as beginning when wireless carriers begin doing limited market tests in “certain select markets.”
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CTIA's characterization of tests involving “up to 300 sites and covering up to 1,000 square miles” as limited testing is a “red flag,” emailed the NAB spokesman. “The Commission was already in the right place, with a common sense approach to the commencement of operations.” CTIA's proposal is an “accommodation” of the FCC's plan to let broadcasters use their old spectrum as long as possible, Bergmann said. In other auctions, wireless licensees take possession of spectrum as soon as they buy it, he said.
Market testing is an “important issue for the success of the auction,” Bergmann told us. Since carriers in the incentive auction won't have full access to their licensed spectrum until after the 39-month deadline for full-power stations to be relocated, market testing is particularly important in this case, CTIA said. “Inhibiting market testing in any fashion, and particularly in the limited window available after full power broadcast television stations are relocated, will greatly jeopardize wireless providers’ ability to meet the six-year interim build-out requirement,” CTIA said. “Such market testing is a necessary prerequisite to commercial launch.”
Being able to use the 600 MHZ spectrum as long as possible is important to broadcasters and especially low powers because it lessens the damage of relocating, said Fletcher Heald broadcast attorney Peter Tannenwald and LPTV Spectrum Rights Coalition Director Mike Gravino in interviews. For LPTV stations looking for a channel after the incentive auction, the longer they can stay in operation, the more of a chance they have to find a new home or reach a sharing agreement, Tannenwald said. Allowing LPTV stations to wait for wireless to actually start operating on the new spectrum will help lessen the predicted competition for tower crews and other relocation resources, since some LPTV stations will have more time than repacked full-power stations, Gravino said. Both said they thought some compromise allowing wireless carriers to market test could be worked out, such as allowing a squatting LPTV station to cease transmitting for the duration of a market test but resume when the test is complete. Gravino said he trusts the FCC to allow low-powers and translators to use their old spectrum “as long as it takes to complete our repacking.”