FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski late Tuesday night circulated a network neutrality item to the other commissioners for a planned vote at a Dec. 21 meeting, according to a source close to one of those commissioners. That was confirmed by an agenda notice issued by the FCC shortly after midnight.
NAB Wary Of TV ‘Degradation’ From FCC Plan
NAB President Gordon Smith says that while it doesn’t object to “truly voluntary” incentive auctions for TV spectrum, he vows to fight any “government-mandated signal strength degradations or limitations, and new spectrum taxes that threaten the future of free and local broadcasting.”
FCC Chief: U.S. Faces ‘Innovators’ Dilemma’
Most of the big-ticket speakers at the Web 2.0 Summit this week gave talks that were carefully guarded, offering little deep insight into the tumultuous state of the fast-evolving tech industry out of necessary trade-secrecy. Not FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski, who wasn’t too subtle about implying that he’s got a lot on his plate and it’s tough to digest.
FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski tells the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners that the current broadcast spectrum allocations “still reflect the previous era. This presents a real obstacle as we try to ensure a spectrum infrastructure for the new world of mobile broadband.” To get things moving, he said, the FCC will consider at its Nov. 30 meeting launching a proceeding that would lift technical restrictions so broadcast spectrum can be used for broadband, and that would allow channel sharing among broadcasters.
