APTS, NAB Hammer Microsoft Vacant Channel Proposal
The vacant channel proposal supported by Microsoft is “an affront” to the FCC’s work on the incentive auction, said America’s Public Television Stations in a letter posted last week in docket 12-268. Reserving vacant channels for unlicensed spectrum “would be…
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potentially devastating to public television and its viewers in this country,” APTS said. “Nothing about this proposal is in the public interest, and the Commission should reject it outright.” Awarding Microsoft free spectrum would “further congest the broadcast spectrum, where hundreds of existing public television translators are hoping to repack,” APTS said. Microsoft didn’t comment. NAB also sent a letter to the FCC on the vacant channel proposal, attaching a Wired column penned by Obama administration tech adviser Susan Crawford (see 1707270032) that criticizes Microsoft’s intentions. “The article suggests that Microsoft’s focus on rural broadband is solely a political strategy designed to curry favor among domestic policymakers,” NAB said.