The International Bureau denied Dish’s request to suspend operations on DBS channels located at 148 degrees west. Allowing Dish to continue to suspend operations at a location that it has left vacant for more than two years “would allow Dish to warehouse scarce orbit and spectrum resources, contrary to commission policy,” the bureau said in an order (http://xrl.us/bm93zv). In 2009, Dish said it had to de-orbit EchoStar 5 from that location, the order said. Since 2009, “Dish has not filed an application to build another satellite or to move an in-orbit satellite into the ... orbital location as an emergency replacement for EchoStar5."
The Personal Communications Industry Association and some of its member companies asked the FCC to briefly delay the date the commission’s Interim Antenna Structure Registration Program Rules take effect. The appeal came in a meeting with top officials from the Wireless Bureau and Office of General Counsel. The interim rules and the new filing system are scheduled to start as soon as the rules are published in the Federal Register. A PCIA official told us publication is expected Tuesday. “Parties stated that while the Order on Remand was released in December 2011, the Commission’s recent guidance Public Notice and tutorial presentations raised questions about implementation and compliance,” said a filing on the meeting (http://xrl.us/bm93w2). “The Parties stated that additional time will allow for thorough compliance through internal technical updates, communication with third-party industry professionals, and continued coordination with the FCC."
Two more TV stations lost FCC Class A status last week. Two stations in Terrebonne-Bend, Ore., lost interference protection and became regular low-power stations after licensee Rodney Johnson of Powell Butte didn’t reply to Media Bureau letters ordering him to show cause why they shouldn’t be downgraded, the bureau said Friday (http://xrl.us/bm932b). K42BR and K48BL are the 12th and 13th Class As to lose Class As since the commission got authority in February for a voluntary incentive auction of broadcast spectrum (http://www.warren-news.com/showcause.htm). Regular low-power TV stations aren’t eligible to be compensated for changing channels in advance of the auction (CD May 3 p2).
Birach Broadcasting faces a possible $17,000 FCC fine for not fully fencing in the antenna of WCXI(AM) Fenton, Mich., which was missing quarterly issues/program lists for its entire license term, an Enforcement Bureau notice of apparent liability said Friday (http://xrl.us/bm93yw).
CEA said the FCC should “reject requests to mandate interoperability across all paired spectrum in the Lower 700 MHz band.” The suggestion came in comments filed Friday at the FCC. A 700 MHz interoperability mandate “would increase handset and deployment costs in the 700 MHz Band, which would hamper innovation in the dynamic and innovative wireless handset marketplace by reducing the options manufacturers and service providers have to meet their customers’ needs, and delay broadband deployment,” CEA said (http://xrl.us/bm93x3). “A mandate also would undermine future spectrum auctions and standards-setting efforts.” The interoperability requirement has been a top focus of small carriers, led by the Rural Cellular Association. The Telecommunications Industry Association also filed in opposition, saying such a mandate would delay development of devices targeted for the band. “Device manufacturers face significant technical hurdles to create devices that can operate across all 700 MHz bands,” TIA said (http://xrl.us/bm93yh). “For example, additional components such as filters, power amplifiers, and switches, would need to be inserted into wireless devices. This concern is exacerbated by the fact that, in order to ensure compliance with an interoperability mandate, handsets may be unable to roam onto other bands for national and international service. The number of bands which can be supported by a wireless device are limited, and a handset likely cannot support both roaming and operation across all 700 MHz bands."
The NAB thanked lawmakers for identifying the important role that radio and TV stations play during times of emergency. Nine members of Congress delivered statements on the House floor to recognize the role of broadcasters during the U.S. hurricane season. NAB President Gordon Smith said “no technology can replicate broadcasting’s ability in reaching mass audiences and providing a lifeline support in emergency and disaster situations.”
It’s going to take years for NBCU to get higher affiliate fees for its pay-TV networks and to turn around performance at its broadcast network, but the groundwork is being put in place today, Comcast Chairman Brian Roberts said at a Sanford Bernstein conference Friday. Increasing affiliate fees at NBCU networks “is contract specific, and it’s no secret that a number of the large distributors had multiyear contracts when we bought the company,” Roberts said. Asked how he balances being one of the largest pay-TV distributors, which typically seek to reduce programming costs, as well as a broadcaster and owner of several cable networks Roberts said: “There is going to be a market, and we got very comfortable with that,” he said. “We can have all the theoretical conversations about what’s fair and right, but there will be a market for retrans. … Can we help with compromises and come up with win-win-outcomes? We want to do that."
Broadcast and wireless executives will talk for more than an hour about what costs they think the FCC should consider in setting up a program to pay the $1.75 billion this year’s spectrum law sets aside for changing TV station channels before a voluntary incentive auction. Panelists at the June 25 workshop on the TV broadcaster spectrum relocation fund “will discuss the categories of costs that they believe the FCC should consider when designing the program,” an agency public notice said Friday (http://xrl.us/bm93x5). “They will also discuss possible models and lessons learned from similar programs that paid the relocation expenses of spectrum incumbents that were assigned new frequencies.” Speakers at the 2 p.m. event in the commission’s meeting room are Jay Adrick of Harris Corp., Brett Haan of Deloitte Consulting, Jane Mago of NAB and Patricia Tikkala of Sprint Nextel.
Dish opposed incentive auctions and shifting the AWS-4 uplink band, in reply comments to the FCC proposal allowing it to build a terrestrial service in the 2 GHz band. Replies were due Friday in docket 12-70. Congress hasn’t authorized incentive auctions in bands that lack competing licensees, Dish said. Even if incentive auctions were available for the 2 GHz band under the Communications Act, such an auction for Dish’s 2 GHz spectrum wouldn’t be truly voluntary because “Dish would be coerced into this course of action on pain of not securing expanded terrestrial rights,” it said. Shifting the AWS-4 uplink band would cause delay and reduce spectrum efficiency, Dish said. The move isn’t necessary because “the combination of reasonable constraints on S-Band and H Block operations proposed by Dish provides sufficient protection for both operations,” Dish said. It also reiterated its recommendation of building out over a four-year timeframe to serve 60 million people and a seven-year timeframe to provide coverage to 200 million people (CD May 18 p6). The National Rural Telecommunications Cooperative opposed MetroPCS’s opposition to granting Dish the authority. MetroPCS opposes it “on the erroneous assumption that the sharing of spectrum by separate terrestrial and satellite licensees is technically feasible,” NRTC said. The bigger risk is the interference the terrestrial use would cause to the satellite signal, it said. NRTC said it supports harmonizing the 2 GHz band rules with other bands and relevant standards organizations and establishing interference protection. The Rural Telecommunications Group is concerned about Dish, a large wireless carrier, “entering the marketplace without the FCC adoption rules and regulations to promote competition and to protect rural consumers.” RTG urged the FCC to require Dish to count a rural carrier’s population toward its buildout requirements “to encourage Dish to effectively partner with rural carriers.” U.S. Cellular urged the commission to ensure that the AWS-4 technical and service rules “do not impair or delay other spectrum bands urgently needed by wireless carriers.” It agrees with the public interest organizations that “unjust enrichment penalties would mitigate incentives for Dish to ‘flip’ the spectrum,” to Verizon or AT&T, “which would lead to a much more heavily consolidated mobile broadband environment,” it said. Without auctioning 20 MHz and/or imposing strict wholesale access and roaming conditions, “Dish could monopolize this significant swath of spectrum, a result the commission has previously sought to avoid.” LightSquared opposed suggestions of Deere and the U.S. GPS Industry Council for more stringent out-of-band emission limits on terrestrial operators: The FCC should reject these proposals and “focus future efforts to protect GPS on examining GPS receiver reliability standards."
Verizon Wireless stressed in a filing at the FCC that refarming PCS spectrum alone will not meet growing demand and it needs the AWS licenses it has proposed to buy from SpectrumCo and Cox. The letter (http://xrl.us/bm93su) addresses questions raised by FCC staff in various meetings, Verizon said. “Verizon Wireless has previously explained that it fully intends to refarm PCS spectrum for LTE when that spectrum is available,” the carrier said. “But PCS refarming alone cannot offset the increasing capacity constraints on the company’s LTE network, and thus is not a substitute for additional AWS spectrum. The company’s traffic projections through 2015 demonstrate the need for additional AWS spectrum to provide the 4G LTE data rates customers expect and Verizon Wireless intends to provide. Without the additional AWS spectrum that is the subject of this transaction, significant capacity constraints will occur on the LTE network.” Another complicating factor, Verizon said, is the amount of PCS spectrum available for refarming is limited. Verizon “requires, at a minimum, a 5 x 5 PCS spectrum block to meet its service objectives, and the spectrum must be available across an entire market,” it said. “LTE and CDMA technologies cannot share the same spectrum block in proximity to one another without significant service degradation. Accordingly, PCS spectrum cannot be used for LTE until all adjacent cell sites using the same 5 x 5 block have been cleared of CDMA operations. Guard bands (by frequency) and guard zones (by geography) are needed to mitigate inter-technology interference.” Most of the hard data Verizon is submitting was redacted from the public version of the filing.