FCC TV Spectrum Rulemaking Delayed Until Q4

A rulemaking paving the way for the FCC to auction TV stations’ spectrum for wireless broadband use and give part of the proceeds to the affected broadcasters won’t be approved until after the deadline envisioned by the commission in its agenda to deliver on the National Broadband Plan. The plan called for action this quarter on an item on “broadcast TV spectrum innovation” that would seek comment on proposals to increase spectrum efficiency and innovation (http://xrl.us/bhf9kj). Instead, Chairman Julius Genachowski is expected to circulate in Q4 a rulemaking notice that could be voted on at the November or December FCC meetings, agency officials and industry executives said. The FCC has missed several other deadlines in the agenda.

As the commission awaits legislation allowing what are called incentive auctions and grapples with technical details of such reallocation raised at its engineering forum in June, a new group formed last week to push for such authority from Congress. The members of the High Tech Spectrum Coalition that seeks voluntary incentive auction legislation are the CEA, Information Technology Industry Council, Semiconductor Industry Association and Telecommunications Industry Association. Representatives of some of those groups said in interviews that they want Congress to give the FCC authority to make good on the broadband plan’s goal, one also backed by President Barack Obama, of voluntarily reallocating 500 MHz of spectrum over 10 years for wireless broadband. The plan called for 120 MHz of that to come from TV.

The forthcoming FCC rulemaking on spectrum appears to have been delayed partly because questions were raised by broadcasters about the feasibility of freeing up some space in the TV band through such things as compression and the use of cell-site like distributed transmission systems, industry lawyers, executives and commission officials speculated. There hasn’t recently been talk among commissioners about such an item, and none was circulating as of Friday, agency officials said. It appears career commission staffers have done significant work on an item, an official said. Without legislation for a voluntary incentive auction, the commission is limited in what it can do, another official said. An FCC spokesman declined to comment.

There have been private meetings at the regulator between industry and agency officials on spectrum in addition to June’s public forum, broadcast lawyers said. The consensus from industry at such gatherings appeared to be that TV spectrum repacking wouldn’t work, “which stuck a bit of a pipe in the plans” of the regulator, a lawyer with TV-station clients said. “It’s very difficult to repack since everything is occupied, unless you drastically reduce interference protection” or move to a distributed transmission system, which has technical problems of its own, the attorney said. “There’s not a whole lot of information they can get or a whole lot of things they can do without an incentive auction."

The various possibilities on TV spectrum and attendant complexities “may cause the FCC to think that this is something that needs more time,” said industry lawyer Michael Berg. “The FCC, I agree, is likely to have a busy December agenda meeting because there are so many big-ticket items” that agency officials “would like to have on the agenda if they can,” he said. FCC and industry officials said December is more likely than November for the TV spectrum rulemaking to get a vote. Although no draft now is circulating, that could quickly change as the FCC has been clearing the decks by acting on other pending issues, an executive said. “So long as these auctions are truly voluntary, NAB wants to work with policymakers to accomplish their goals” and so the U.S. can have the world’s best broadband and broadcast system, a spokesman said.

"We're optimistic” about getting an FCC vote soon on a spectrum reallocation rulemaking, though that’s not why the spectrum coalition was formed, said Government Affairs Director Vince Jesaitis of the Information Technology Industry Council, part of the new group. “Our goal is to give the FCC broad authority” and it’s a good thing “if they think they can incentivize other license holders” in addition to broadcasters to put their spectrum up for auction, he said. “We're not saying `look at X, Y and Z band.'"

"It takes a tremendous amount of time for them to model them and structure” such an unprecedented auction, Jesaitis said of the FCC, so Congress needs to pass a law allowing for one to take place. The coalition hasn’t found much opposition on Capitol Hill to the idea -- legislators are just busy with other issues, including consideration of a spectrum inventory and spectrum for public safety, he said. “The issue we're having on the Hill is getting people” there “to separate this from all the other spectrum issues that are before Congress,” Jesaitis said: “Our pitch is that they need to pass this piece immediately if we think we can meet the 300 MHz by 2015 and the 500 MHz by 2020” goals as set out in the broadband plan.

"We want Congress to know that we're involved, engaged and ready -- they have an audience” on the issue, said Vice President Julie Kearney of CEA, another spectrum coalition member. “Ideally we would have legislation right now that we could pass in this session” of Congress, she said. “But the next best thing is teeing it up so we're ready to go right when the next session starts.” The coalition was meant to include high-technology companies, who hadn’t had a group jointly advocating for spectrum legislation, Kearney said. Jesaitis said he thinks CTIA -- not a member but another group that’s sought more spectrum for wireless broadband -- “will be supportive of the effort.”