Industry Coalition Concerned About ‘Duplexer Gap’ in Incentive Auction Band Plan
A broad coalition representing broadcasters and wireless companies Thursday called for changes to the proposed bandplan for an incentive auction of broadcast TV spectrum. The call came in a letter to the FCC on the eve of a deadline for initial comments on the much-anticipated auction. As expected (CD Jan 24 p1), the letter objected to a proposal to put some broadcasters in the so-called duplexer gap, surrounded by wireless operations. The letter was signed by NAB, Verizon Wireless, AT&T, T-Mobile, Qualcomm and Intel.
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"Determining how to organize wireless and TV operations in the 600 MHz band to maximize the amount of spectrum available for mobile broadband services and minimize interference and deployment challenges is indeed a difficult task,” the letter said. “We appreciate the Commission’s efforts thus far and have carefully reviewed the NPRM’s proposals."
Rumors have swirled in recent days that an agreement was in the works between broadcasters and carriers. The resulting letter runs less than two pages. All of the signers are expected to file separate comments, industry sources said.
Ideally, the FCC should try to “maximize the amount of auctioned spectrum” while avoiding harmful interference to wireless and broadcasting operations enabling “device performance and size consistent with existing smart phones and tablets,” the letter said.
The plan should also “adopt a contiguous ‘down from TV 51’ approach with uplink at the top,” maximize “the amount of paired spectrum above TV 37” and provide for “duplex gap” between uplink and downlink connections “of a minimum of 10 MHz, but no larger than technically necessary,” with no broadcasters relegated to this gap, the letter said. Existing broadcast TV operations in Channel 37 should be allowed to continue, the letter said. The plan should also “provide a guard band between a high power broadcaster and mobile downlink that is sufficient to protect the wireless service from interference, which will likely be larger than the 6 MHz proposed by the FCC” and “facilitate international harmonization, prioritizing harmonization across North America and move forward expeditiously to coordinate with Canada and Mexico for new broadcast assignments,” the letter said.