Phase Zero Stations Need Relief, Says LPTV Group

Phase zero stations are LPTV stations located in designated market areas where spectrum was sold in the incentive auction but there aren’t any full-power or Class A stations being repacked, Gravino said. Carriers that bought that spectrum don’t have to wait for the post-auction repacking process to conclude to start operating on their spectrum, and the commence operations order requires LPTV stations to vacate their spectrum once a wireless provider is ready to begin operations. The FCC plans an LPTV displacement window at the end of the repacking process in time to accommodate most LPTV stations that will be required to move, but the phase zero stations will be bumped long before then, Gravino said. It’s called Phase Zero because it takes place before the first phase of the official repacking.

Getting bumped early could cause affected LPTV stations to remain dark for more than a year, which under FCC rules would require them to forfeit their licenses, Gravino said. For many stations, being dark for long would also be a considerable economic hardship, attorneys said. It would deprive consumers of their stations, Gravino said. The FCC should open a special phase zero window to allow LPTV stations to be relocated now, or allow them to move to temporary channels, he said. He suggested carriers be blocked from forcing phase zero stations to relocate until after the already scheduled LPTV displacement window but conceded that solution is unlikely. Wireless carriers “will not like this, and will not agree to this,” Gravino said. “So this is a non-starter.”

Several broadcast attorneys told us FCC officials have said informally that LPTV stations that need to remain dark beyond the allowed time because of displacement will be accommodated. An IATF spokesman declined to comment on that. “We’ve said that we want to be and intend to be flexible,” said the spokesman, saying the IATF staff has met with Gravino on the matter.

T-Mobile began to contact some phase zero stations about beginning to use some of the spectrum, Gravino said. T-Mobile was seen as one of the biggest spectrum buyers in the incentive auction, and it indicated it plans to move quickly to begin incorporating it into its network, a broadcast attorney said. In an email to an LPTV broadcaster, a T-Mobile engineer said the company wants to begin coordinating with translators and LPTV stations in the affected areas so it can “turn up” sites on the new spectrum in Q4. “We don’t plan to use all of the spectrum initially, so we have some flexibility on which block we will use,” the email said. For the FCC to take steps to accommodate some of the LPTV concerns would be a win for both industries, said Fletcher Heald attorney Davina Sashkin. T-Mobile isn’t a “bad actor in this situation, just using the rules as approved,” Gravino said.

"It should not be a surprise that T-Mobile is going to move swiftly to put available 600 MHz spectrum to use for consumers," said Vice President-Government Affairs Steve Sharkey. "We are reaching out to broadcasters to inform them of our plans and we support efforts to find vacant channels below channel 37 for LPTV and translators."

If the phase zero issue does lead to a lawsuit, one broadcast lawyer said, the broadcasters would be unlikely to win, but the likely delays a legal battle could cause would be an inconvenience for the repacking effort. “This is not what I want to be doing,” Gravino said. He blames the issue on the FCC not comprehensively studying the effect of the auction on LPTV and translators: “Fixing this problem will not slow down the winning bidders and their roll outs, and will not provide any undue advantage to anyone. But not fixing it could put the entire repack timeline in jeopardy.”