A group of House members says the commission needs to not grant extensions to the 39-month timeline of the spectrum repack.
Reps Want Pai To Stick To Repack Deadline
Today, 56 members of Congress wrote to FCC Chairman Ajit Pai to urge him keep the current July 3, 2020, deadline to have TV stations moved to their post-incentive auction frequencies.
“Clearing the 600 MHz band as quickly as possible is a critical component of the ongoing effort to deploy high-speed internet to rural America and close the digital divide. We are concerned that delays to the 39-month repacking timeline established by the FCC will impede the billions of dollars of private sector investments in infrastructure necessary for achieving this goal.”
In response, Dennis Wharton, NAB EVP of communications, said: “NAB pledges to work in bipartisan fashion with policymakers to complete the repack transition as quickly as possible. Every day, tens of millions of TV viewers and radio listeners rely on hometown broadcasters for news, entertainment and lifeline emergency weather alerts. Our goal is to protect viewers and listeners as we work towards a smooth and speedy conclusion of the repack.”
Read the full letter here.
Comments (4)
Brian Bussey says:
October 16, 2017 at 3:43 pm
so the FCC is going to move channels and then comeback and render TV tuners useless with atsc 3.0 ?
laureen moncrief says:
October 16, 2017 at 4:12 pm
Congress better start a technical school for tower techs to get more in the field. We just lost 3 exprienced mne in FL.
Daniel Koenig says:
October 17, 2017 at 12:21 am
Wonder how many people this will get killed? Stations better make sure their insurance is paid up.
Joseph Koskovics says:
October 17, 2017 at 3:13 pm
Yeah, let’s have more people die to enforce this FAKE deadline. Don’t how to explain any more clearly “not enough trained tall tower crews”! Heaven forbid we make the big broadband companies mad. Bad for contributions!