NAB Tells Carr No Penalties for Going Over Repack Timeline, Has 3.0 Concerns on Microsoft Plan

NAB isn't asking the FCC to alter the 39-month repacking timeline, but wants Commissioner Brendan Carr to “ensure” broadcasters aren’t penalized for missing deadlines “due to circumstances beyond their control,” CEO Gordon Smith said in a meeting Tuesday, recounted a filing posted Friday in docket 12-268. “Ironically, T-Mobile’s constant concern about maintaining the current 39-month timeframe demonstrates that T-Mobile has little or no confidence that the deadline will be met,” it said. NAB also said the FCC should look closely at how T-Mobile’s possible merger with Sprint "may impact how the Commission approaches repacking" (see 1709220056). The meeting also touched on Microsoft’s proposals for reserving channels for white space use in the TV band, the filing said. “It makes no sense to inject a new complexity -- especially for an unproven and thus far failed technology” into the already complicated repacking and ATSC 3.0 transition processes, the group said. It urged the FCC to take up the petitions for reconsideration of the 2010 and 2014 quadrennial ownership reviews: “The prior review was a ‘review’ in name only; it did not take seriously the Commission’s job to determine whether the existing broadcast ownership rules are in the public interest.”