T-Mobile Explains Incentive Auction Repacking Plan
T-Mobile representatives explained the carrier’s proposal for dividing the U.S. into eight regions for broadcaster repacking after the TV incentive auction (see 1603040052), in a meeting with officials from the FCC Incentive Auction Task Force. “T-Mobile’s proposed broadcast relocation schedule…
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would steadily open access to low-band spectrum for both population and land area over a three-year period in an objective and balanced manner,” the carrier said in a filing posted Friday in docket 12-268. T-Mobile’s representatives described the company’s experience in frequency-relocation projects, including the AWS-3 relocation process, the filing said. “In the broadcasting context, T-Mobile explained how it has already assisted multiple full-power television stations since August 2014 in relocating from Channel 51 to lower-frequency spectrum. On average, these stations needed just 93 days to move from the start of the transition process when the FCC granted the station’s construction permit to the end of the process when the station filed a license to cover its new operations.” Repacking TV stations after the auction "will be the most complex transition the commission has ever overseen," an NAB spokesman said in response. "Rather than insisting on keeping the FCC’s current unsupported deadline in place, T-Mobile should support an efficient, rational and achievable repacking plan that protects the interests of both broadcasters and forward auction bidders.”