FCC’s Levin Seeks ‘Reality’ in Spectrum Dialog With Broadcasters
A realistic approach to a dialog to repurpose radio waves for wireless broadband use is needed, said Executive Director Blair Levin of the FCC Omnibus Broadband Initiative. Broadcasters “will just say there is no way to do it, there is no creativity” when it comes to using TV spectrum for other purposes, he said Tuesday at a Progress & Freedom Foundation event in Washington. Stations want to engage in the dialog Levin seeks, but must know how much spectrum the FCC wants, said President David Donovan of the Association for Maximum Service Television.
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“I live in a world of reality,” Levin said. “There is a certain reality to things that I think the broadband plan” being developed by the commission “and the policy ought to reflect,” he added. “It is a bit of a mystery to me why broadcasters” seem loathe to “explore the idea that some broadcasters might wish to sell their spectrum in a way that may benefit them and the country,” Levin said. “I don’t know if we'll strike a deal today. There are a lot of things to play out.” Although “certain parts of the dialog can only be characterized as comical,” some of his conversations with broadcasters have been “enormously useful,” he said during a Q-and-A.
TV spectrum isn’t being put to the best economic use, Levin said. He praised the work of panelist Coleman Bazelon, whose recent report for the CEA found that full-power TV spectrum is worth $48 billion (CED Oct 27 p1). Levin said the current value of TV spectrum is 13-19 cents per megahertz per person in a geographic area, or POP, “because the price reflects the business model,” versus the $1.28 raised on that basis by the FCC’s last auction. Citing a recent story on the plunge in value of non-performing TV stations, known as sticks, Levin said, “the notion that you have people who want to sell and can’t even sell for the value of the stick reflects the fact that we really ought to be able to make a deal.” Skeptical that every station needs to use their full 19.4 Mbps bitstream, he said, “help us create a market so that we can avoid the crisis that is not today, but it is certainly coming” of a shortage of spectrum.
Broadcast officials were dubious that a shortage is looming. “Nobody has shown any facts that there is a looming spectrum crisis,” said lawyer John Hane of Pillsbury, representing TV stations. “There is nothing authoritative or objective about the ITU report” on the subject done by vendors, he said: “Broadcasters need to do a better job” of explaining why other industries’ arguments for reallocation are wrong. Many companies usually at odds agree more spectrum is needed, Levin said. “There really isn’t in this record any evidence of a spectrum crisis,” Hane responded.
Donovan said broadcasters want to talk about spectrum but first need to know how much Levin and others at the FCC want. “That determines the policies that one follows, and to date that has been a very nebulous number,” Donovan said. “I hope we can have a dialog here, and this is really important, because no one likes to shadow box.” Broadcasters “believe that we are part of this solution, particularly as it applies to wireless,” he said. Congress required the FCC to come up with a broadband plan, he added, “not necessarily a national wireless broadband plan.” -- Jonathan Make
Progress & Freedom Foundation Event Notebook …
An FCC public notice on spectrum reallocation will be issued soon, Levin confirmed. But he told attendees that he couldn’t say exactly when. Other commission staffers have said the notice will be released this month (CED Dec 1 p5).
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Investors in broadcast companies are uncertain how FCC efforts to repurpose spectrum will affect those companies’ finances, an event panelist said. “What exactly would the government give to broadcasters besides making them whole” in the way of a “sweetener,” asked analyst Paul Gallant of the Washington Research Group. “Right now this is mostly an issue of curiosity to most folks in the investment community.”
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As the FCC looks at reallocating spectrum, it ought to keep in mind that auctions don’t always live up to their potential, a panelist told event attendees. “I don’t believe that auctions generate the highest and best use of resources. They are rigged. They don’t generate the revenues that OMB and Congress seem to think they will,” President Andrew Schwartzman of the Media Access Project said. “There are better ways to use this spectrum coming along” such as cognitive radio and white spaces, he said. “Auctions lock in existing technology and near-term foreseeable technology.”