FCC To Seek Comment on NAB/Industry Proposal for Revised TV White Spaces Database Rules

NAB and the device makers explained the database agreement in a July letter to the FCC (see 1507170062). NAB filed a petition March at the FCC citing wide-ranging problems with the database (see 1503190056). But NAB and others fared less well on the duplex gap issue, with the FCC deciding to place TV stations in the gap, between uplink and downlink frequencies for sale in the incentive auction (see 1508060029). The auction procedures public notice addresses and dismisses arguments by some of the carriers widely expected to be big players in the auction, including Verizon, AT&T and T-Mobile.

“Commenters express conflicting views on where to assign impairing television stations, arguing for various reasons that impairments should be restricted to the uplink, downlink and/or the duplex gap portion of the 600 MHz Band and identifying problems with every possible location within the 600 MHz Band,” the auction procedures public notice observes. Some competitive carriers argue that stations should be assigned to uplink spectrum “because consumer demand is driving the need for more unimpaired downlink spectrum than uplink spectrum,” the FCC said. “On the other hand, Sprint supports assigning TV stations on contiguous channels starting at the bottom end of the downlink band to facilitate filter design in devices, reduce the number of filters needed for base stations, and maximize two-way spectrum.”

The FCC’s approach makes the most sense because it minimizes impairments through the use of an optimization tool, the goal of many comments filed at the agency, the PN said. “We cannot conclude that protecting the duplex gap from any impairment is warranted at the risk of repurposing less spectrum,” the FCC said. “Our analysis indicates the duplex gap will not be subject to any impairment in most markets even if the optimization procedure tool is not restricted in assigning impairing stations.”

The notice said the percentage of impaired weighted POPs varies based on how much broadcast spectrum is recovered from broadcasters, from 8 percent if 144 MHz is offered for sale to 20 percent at amounts starting with 72 MHz. The FCC is justified in not releasing additional data on clearing simulations, despite the calls from NAB and others to do so (see 1507300042), the notice said. “The Clearing Target Simulations PN identified the critical information necessary to evaluate our clearing target determination procedure, and we are not persuaded that the release of more data is warranted,” the FCC said.

NAB General Counsel Rick Kaplan criticized the notice findings. “The FCC turned its back on reporters who cover breaking news and the communities that rely on them to be safe and secure,” Kaplan said Wednesday. “The PN is very misleading when it says the commission found a solution for wireless mics in markets where it now suddenly must impair the duplex gap. Even apart from the significant problems caused by removing a channel, let alone two, from the TV band, the FCC knows that you can’t rely on shared spectrum to cover breaking news events. And we are again faced with the reality that the FCC did not mean what it said when it claimed that it only needed to impair up to six markets.” Other industry officials said Wednesday they're still examining the documents which were released by the FCC at the end of the day Tuesday.

The Part 15 rules order said the FCC’s goal is “providing flexibility” for the operation of white spaces devices “without causing harmful interference to broadcast services.” The FCC said the rules no longer use the term “TV band devices” in favor of unified rules for all “white spaces devices.”

The Part 15 order also shoots down industry objections. “We believe the rules we are adopting create an environment where the potential for white space devices to cause harmful interference to adjacent wireless downlink bands is low,” it said. “Accordingly, we find no basis to adopt significantly tighter out-of-band emission limits, lower power levels, or a five megahertz frequency buffer to protect wireless downlink receivers from harmful interference from white space devices, as advocated by CTIA and AT&T.”

The order liberalizes the rules for the use of TV white spaces devices to access the Internet. For example, the devices will now be able to use unoccupied channels directly adjacent to those in use in a particular market. The order allows the devices to operate at 10 watts of effective radiated power in less congested areas, compared to the previous 4 W limit.

Personal/portable white spaces devices will be allowed to operate in the white spaces at 40 mW power. “It is not possible to ensure that harmful interference will never occur, as wireless interests apparently request,” the FCC said. “The Part 15 rules recognize this fact, indicating that the limits in Part 15 will not prevent harmful interference under all circumstances and that it is the obligation of the unlicensed device to eliminate the interference or cease operations.”

T-Mobile Complaint Rejected

T-Mobile, meanwhile, appears to have made little headway in convincing the FCC to adopt a larger amount of reserve spectrum for the auction or a revised trigger for when the reserve spectrum is available for sale. FCC officials said earlier the agency carefully weighed each of the arguments.

“In setting the amount of reserved and unreserved spectrum that will be available in the incentive auction, we sought to achieve a balance among a number of objectives including making additional low-band spectrum available to multiple providers with varying needs, ensuring that all bidders have an opportunity to win 600 MHz band licenses, and ensuring competitive bidding,” said the order on reconsideration on the FCC's 2014 mobile spectrum holding rules. The FCC already fully “considered and rejected requests” for a higher spectrum reserve, including arguments made by T-Mobile, in its initial spectrum holdings order, the FCC said.

The FCC addressed the calls for a revised trigger, by T-Mobile, Sprint and others (see 1508040057) in the procedures notice. Under FCC rules approved in May 2014 (see 1405160030), the first trigger occurs when auction proceeds in the top 40 partial economic areas exceed an average price of $1.25 per MHz/POP. The second occurs when the auction raises enough money to reimburse all broadcasters for the spectrum they surrender and cover other remaining auction expenses, including repacking.

“In particular, we disagree with arguments that linking the spectrum reserve trigger to one or the other component of the final stage rule undermines our goals in establishing the spectrum reserve,” the notice said. “Rather, we affirm that linking the spectrum reserve trigger to the average price component is important to ‘fairly distribute the responsibility for satisfying the costs of the Incentive Auction among all bidders,’ particularly in light of our decision to set the average price component at $1.25.”