Pickering Targets Dec. 2008 for End of DTV Transition
Rep. Pickering (R-Miss.) said he believes that as early as this Sept. Congress will reach a compromise, setting Dec. 31, 2008, as the date on which 24 MHz of radio spectrum in the 700 MHz band -- now used by analog TV - would be cleared for use by first responders. At issue is a requirement in the draft Digital TV Transition bill proposed by House Commerce Committee Chmn. Barton (R- Tex.) that at least 85% of television users in each market be converted to digital television before the channels can be cleared.
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Pickering served on a panel that asked Congress Tues. to set an end date as close to Dec. 31, 2006, as possible, so public safety organizations can use critical radio spectrum. The panel, sponsored by the Congressional Wireless Caucus (CWC), included members of the 9/11 Commission, representatives of major public safety groups and the head of Voices of Sept. 11. The panelists said first responders desperately need more spectrum, urging the channels be released as soon as possible.
At the Capitol Hill briefing, 9/11 Comr. and former Sen. Slade Gorton (R-Wash.) called it “scandalous” that first responders still lack the spectrum they need to communicate effectively in emergencies. It is “highly inappropriate” for broadcasters to block progress of a bill so critical to national security, Gorton said.
“Broadcasters could support a bill with a date certain,” said NAB Senior Vp-Science and Technology Lynn Claudy in an interview. The real question is “have you relocated services effectively so that you don’t disenfranchise consumers?” he said. Claudy said broadcasters want to resolve two issues: How and when subsidies will be made available to consumers for digital converter boxes for analog TVs; and whether cable companies will have to carry all of broadcasters’ digital services once the channels are released.
The transition from analog to digital TV and release of the 700 MHz spectrum to public safety and other uses is a longstanding FCC issue. The commission has required TV makers to follow a schedule that ensures that all new TVs of any size will be digitally capable by July 2007. As a step in that schedule, all U.S.-made TVs 36” or larger must be digitally capable as of Friday, July 1.
Noting a bitter irony, Robert Gurss, dir. of legal and govt. affairs for the Assn. of Public-Safety Communications Officials (APCO), said an advisory group -- the Public Safety Wireless Advisory Committee -- reported to the FCC on Sept. 11, 1996, urging allocation of 24 MHz of spectrum to first responders within 5 years - a deadline marked by the 9/11 attacks, whose results were made worse by lack of interactive public safety spectrum.
The spectrum shortage hobbles public safety workers every day, Gurss said, often keeping them from using new technologies that would let them download photos and fingerprints, for example. The shortage becomes life threatening in emergencies, he said.
Rep. Roemer (D-Ill.), a 9/11 commissioner, called it “unconscionable” that Congress would have at hand the answer to the public safety spectrum shortage -- which the 9/11 commission cited as a major cause of hundreds of deaths in the N.Y.C. attacks -- and “not get the job done.”
Rep. Wynn (D-Md.), a CWC member, said his district -- Montgomery and Prince George’s Counties near D.C. -- and other large metropolitan areas are particularly vulnerable to failure from public safety spectrum shortages. No new spectrum has been allocated in more than 20 years, he said. During that time, the population and the number of first responders in his district has skyrocketed. Wynn and others noted that public safety organizations cannot plan for or invest in technology needed to use the new spectrum until a date certain is set.