FCC Needs to Stick to Incentive Auction Transition Deadline for Clearing TV Band, CTIA Says
The FCC needs to stick to its deadline to move broadcasters out of the TV band 39 months after the incentive auction ended with the up to $1.75 billion in reimbursements they will get, Krista Witanowski, CTIA assistant vice president-regulatory…
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affairs, blogged Tuesday. “Rules -- authorized by Congress, adopted by the FCC, and upheld by a federal appeals court -- strike a careful balance: protecting TV viewers, providing broadcasters with sufficient flexibility, and allowing wireless providers timely access.” Carriers need the spectrum to deploy service in rural America, Witanowski said. Future auctions rely on sticking to current rules, she said: If "access to spectrum takes longer than promised, trust will erode -- and future auction revenues will decline." Some in the broadcast industry want more time and/or rule tweaks (see 1703220074). “It’s a little rich for CTIA, whose members whipped up a fake ‘spectrum crisis’ hysteria and then went AWOL in the recent TV auction, to demand that the FCC stick to a 39-month deadline," an NAB spokesman said. "Broadcasters intend to work with the FCC to complete this Herculean repack as quickly as possible. But arbitrary deadlines are not the answer, and there should be no illusion that moving 987 TV stations to a new channel can be accomplished without likely delays.”