FCC Extending Phase 5 of Repack for Hurricane Dorian
The Incentive Auction Task Force and Media Bureau are extending from Friday until Sept. 11 the completion date of phase 5 of the post-incentive auction repacking because of Hurricane Dorian, said a public notice Tuesday. The extension is to “assure…
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that viewers will not be required to rescan their TVs during this period and risk missing important emergency news and information,” said the PN. “This extension will permit each station to determine the appropriate transition timing for its station and its viewers based on the developing conditions in its market.” Stations in areas not affected by the storm are encouraged to continue transitions on the original schedule, the PN said. “We will continue to work with individual stations, including those impacted by Hurricane Dorian, on a case-by-case basis." The FCC has been “working throughout the weekend” on preparations for Hurricane Dorian, said Chairman Ajit Pai Monday. It's working with other agencies, communications providers and power companies to encourage coordinated service restoration efforts “making sure they implement lessons learned from Hurricane Michael,” Pai said. After that storm, Pai urged action on wireless resiliency and service losses due to utility work (see 1905210035). Commission staffers were deployed to survey RF spectrum in areas projected to be hit by Dorian, to help identify impacts and outages, Pai said. The agency activated the disaster information reporting system for several Florida counties and has staff on hand 24 hours a day to assist first responders and communications providers, Pai said. An agency webpage acts as a hub for Dorian-related information. Storm damage to 34 Florida counties was described as “minimal” in a Tuesday morning DIRS report. No public safety answering points were reported down or rerouted, and 0.2 percent of cell sites were out of service in the affected area. The report listed 6,884 cable and wireline subscribers as out of service, and no broadcast stations were reported off-air.