Broadcasters Oppose Proposed Changes for White Spaces Rules

NAB and the Association for Maximum Service Television asked the FCC to reject industry petitions seeking changes to the commission’s white-spaces rules filed in January. The Wi-Fi Alliance, meanwhile, opposed NCTA and Cellular South petitions for reconsideration that would tighten the rules.

NAB and MSTV objected to three of the five recon petitions filed -- by Motorola Solutions, by the Wireless Internet Service Providers Association and others, and by the Wi-Fi Alliance. NAB and MSTV did not seek reconsideration of the FCC’s Sept. 23 order, though the groups challenged the original 2008 order in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.

The three petitions suffer from the same defect, the broadcasters said: They were filed late. “These Petitions ask the Commission to revisit technical issues that were fully considered and addressed in the 2008 Report and Order in this proceeding and were not modified in the Memorandum Opinion and Order that is the subject of the Petitions,” NAB and MSTV said. “They are late-filed Petitions unsupported by any justification for why were not filed 30 days after the 2008 Report and Order was published in the Federal Register.”

All the changes sought would “erode or eliminate” interference protections built into the rules to protect users of the TV band, said the broadcasters associations. “This has been a prolonged proceeding,” NAB and MSTV said. “Because of the unprecedented nature of this proceeding and the potential for white space device operation to cause interference to the public’s reception of local television service, it is appropriate that the Commission has taken care to get it right.”

The Wi-Fi Alliance objected to a request by NCTA to restrict access to the contents of the TV bands databases to “registered device manufacturers and operators of broadcasting and communications businesses.” The restriction would mean that the information technology departments of companies supporting users of white spaces devices wouldn’t have access, the alliance noted. “The Wi-Fi Alliance does not believe such restrictions are warranted,” the group said. Users “will need to access the database for locations of neighborhood” TV band “fixed devices in order to help avoid or resolve interference complaints.”