spectrum

European broadcasters are emerging from a period of uncertainty to discover they will have to cede more primary spectrum to mobile broadband operators, but are being offered some concessions over reallocation.

Verizon’s decision to sell some of its spectrum has nothing to do with regulators currently reviewing its pending deals for spectrum and marketing with major cable companies, the company said Thursday.

With the passage of legislation authorizing incentive auctions of TV spectrum for wireless broadband use, broadcasters scored a victory in getting numerous safeguards included. Good job. But if the FCC, broadcasters and broadband proponents could have found a way to work together, they could all have been winners. They could have found a plan that produces the extra spectrum that’s needed for broadband and improves rather than degrades broadcasting service.

The chief architect of the FCC’s National Broadband Plan says the incentive auction of TV spectrum is unlikely to produce much spectrum for wireless broadband or money for the federal treasury. Why? NAB-backed provisions designed to protect broadcasters in the authorizing legislation will expose the auction to crippling litigation. “Congratulations to [NAB President] Gordon Smith,” he says. “He did a great job. He did the job he was hired to do…. But let’s not kid ourselves: That’s not putting the United States first.”

Sinclair’s Mark Aitken believes there’s a better option to the government’s spectrum auction proposal that would benefit both broadcasters and the U.S. Treasury. If broadcasters were granted permission to lease their excess spectrum to wireless carriers — to become the big bulk carriers of video and other bandwidth-intensive content — they could generate over $1 trillion in revenues over the next 15 years. In addition, under current law, they would be required to pay 5% of that revenue to the government, which Aiken says could be $62 billion for  Treasury’s coffers.

Dish Network has amassed an impressive swath of satellite spectrum it would like to leverage for land-based transmissions. But the expense and risks associated with building a broadband network has some industry insiders skeptical that’s the company’s actual goal. The company’s core competency, after all, is pay TV. When asked about the possibility of a spectrum flip, Dish declined to comment.

The Senate bill authorizing FCC TV spectrum auctions is raising red flags after an amendment was added that makes it unclear that such auctions be entirely voluntary for broadcasters. Another is that the FCC is not required to protect sufficiently those broadcasters that choose to hang on to their spectrum from increased interference and loss of service area.

A House Communications & Internet Subcommittee spokesperson said an April 12 hearing on spectrum issues will not be rescheduled again. It has a lot of competition for broadcaster and media attention since it is scheduled for the same day that thousands of broadcasters — and FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski and Commissioner Meredith Attwell Baker — will be in Las Vegas for NAB’s annual convention.

FCC chairman Julius Genachowski brought his call for moving swiftly to free up more wireless spectrum to the International CTIA show in Orlando, the wireless companies who have been pushing the FCC hard to make that happen.

More than two-dozen station groups and owners representing more than 200 TV stations across the country have banded together to tell the FCC that its approach to freeing up spectrum is illegal, and in comments to the FCC said, essentially, they can’t comment fully on it because of the FCC’s piecemeal approach to the issue.

Broadcasters have told the FCC to do some more looking before it makes its wireless spectrum leap. In comments on the FCC’s spectrum proceeding, the National Association of Broadcasters outlined a five-point plan it said was the right way for the FCC to proceed.

The FCC chairman addresses what he calls “misimpressions,” saying there is no spectrum hoarding by cable and wireless companies; that there is already a spectrum inventory; that spectrum subleasing by broadcasters won’t solve the broadband spectrum shortage; and emphasizd that any  spectrum repacking would be limited and stations would be fully reimbursed for any moves and “we would propose that stations not be forced to move from the UHF band to the VHF band; rather, any such moves would be purely voluntary.”

Sens. Mark R. Warner and Roger Wicker Wednesday introduced a bill that would require federal agencies to provide more information on spectrum relocation projects at the outset, and would create a technical review panel to help develop relocation plans and provide for spectrum sharing during a transition.

A coalition of television station operators, including operators of religious and low-power stations, is preparing to stand firm to protect spectrum in the face of the FCC’s desire to repurpose parts of the television band for wireless broadband delivery.

FCC National Broadband Plan architect Blair Levin is advising broadcasters to come up with a plan of their own for advancing their spectrum future — he suggests a move to the more spectrally efficient MPEG-4 transmission standard — rather than digging in their heels on the FCC’s spectrum reclamtion-repacking proposal.

The House Communications & Technology Subcommittee is not expected to hold a planned hearing on the FCC-administration’s spectrum reclamation plans next week, according to sources inside and outside the House Energy & Commerce Committee.

The NAB president says broadcasters are willing to volunteer spectrum, but won’t be put in a degraded position on the TV band.

It’s an uphill fight for broadcasters trying to stall or mitigate the FCC’s plan to reclaim a large hunk of broadcast spectrum and repurpose it for wireless broadband. The plan enjoys the backing of some of the biggest names in wireless, consumer electronics and the high-tech world, not to mention the White House and fiscal conservatives on the Hill.

The charge against the cable and satellite operators comes in a letter to key members of Congress. The NAB president also calls for a government investigation into “spectrum hoarding and/or spectrum speculation.”

Veteran politician,businessman and now the top evangelist for broadcasters, Gordon Smith, the president of the National Association of Broadcasters, is telling his former Capitol Hill colleagues that the federal government’s plan to bolster wireless networks could end up darkening signals for hundreds of stations around the country.

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.”