ATSC 3.0 DTS Order Has 3 Votes; OK Expected This Month
The draft order on rules for ATSC 3.0 distributed transmission systems (DTS) has three commissioner votes and is expected to be approved on circulation later this month (see 2012110052), said FCC and broadcast industry officials. The three votes are from the Republicans, and broadcast industry officials think there’s a chance Commissioners Jessica Rosenworcel and Geoffrey Starks could vote to approve or approve in part. Starks and Rosenworcel voted "concur" last month on another 3.0 item (see 2012100071). The final order is expected to be close to what NAB requested but include concessions to Microsoft’s concerns that the new rules would interfere with unlicensed use of the TV white spaces and rural broadband.
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Industry officials said it will change interference rules to let broadcasters use single-frequency networks to better provide coverage at the edge of a station’s service contour. The ability to create SFNs is important for allowing broadcasters to use 3.0's full potential, said Mark Aitken, president of One Media and senior vice president-advanced technology for parent company Sinclair. “DTS is all about for the first time having the ability to match a station’s coverage to its service area,” he said in an interview.
It's possible the order could change slightly to be more palatable to the Democrats, industry officials said. Because the DTS order is being approved on circulation, no draft was released. The FCC didn't comment Tuesday.
The order would relax interference rules to account for some spillover outside a station’s service area. Microsoft and some public interest groups raised concerns the proceeding would let broadcasters expand outside their stations' previous reach and that the push for DTS is driven by broadcaster plans to use 3.0 to lease spectrum to wireless companies. Microsoft didn’t comment.
Permitting the DTS signal to extend beyond “a minimal amount” will “negatively impact the availability of television white spaces ('TVWS') spectrum that can be used for providing broadband access,” the company said in an ex parte filing last month. Concerns about the effect on white spaces and broadband are why the FCC Democrats may not fully support it, industry officials said. Broadcasters say white spaces are broadcast spectrum, and unlicensed uses aren’t a primary service.
The final order will be a compromise overseen by the Media Bureau, said a broadcast official. Some in the proceeding said a petition for reconsideration from Microsoft or a public interest entity is possible. John Hane, CEO of ATSC 3.0 consortium BitPath, said concerns raised by DTS opponents are largely hypothetical. He said broadcasters are working to quantify the costs and impacts of interference from unlicensed devices on 3.0 broadcasters and to determine the cost-effectiveness of using the white spaces as a way to spread broadband. That information will be persuasive if there are challenges to the DTS rules, Hane said.
Aitken expects broadcasters to take advantage of DTS rules when they take effect, and he indicated Sinclair and One Media made preparations. Hane said the process of creating an SFN is complicated and could be needed to so 3.0 fully works in some large markets.