Sprint officials asked the FCC to revise the F(50,50) statistical measure that will be used as part of the TV incentive auction to predict interference from full-power and Class A DTV transmitters to wireless base stations. The measure bases interference on a standard whereby a signal will be strong enough to interfere in 50 percent of the locations 50 percent of the time. “Sprint demonstrated that the F(50,50) statistical measure severely underestimates the real-world levels of interference that wireless operators could experience, as compared to the more realistic F(50,10) measure of predicted interference,” the carrier said. It reported on a meeting with FCC officials on the topic, in a filing made Thursday in docket 12-268. The FCC should also use the F(50,10) statistical measure supported by Sprint and broadcasters, CTIA also told the FCC last week (see 1502270047).

New American Foundation's Open Technology Institute (OTI) and Public Knowledge jointly asked the FCC in comments filed Wednesday in docket 12-268 to adopt final rules that will ensure at least three to four 6 MHz channels are available for unlicensed white spaces devices in every market in the U.S. Others said the rules are either too liberal to too restrictive. The FCC sought comment on both the future of wireless mics and of unlicensed operations in the TV bands as part of its work toward rules for the TV incentive auction.

Allowing unlicensed operations to use the TV guard bands after the TV incentive auction, as proposed by the FCC, is a doubly bad idea, Brattle said in a report filed Wednesday and paid for by Qualcomm. The policy will be ineffective because operations in the guard bands won’t attract investment, Brattle said. “Their limited bandwidth makes the 600 MHz guard bands inferior to the unlicensed bands at 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz for Wi-Fi-type applications, and the necessarily limited transmit power precludes use of 600 MHz unlicensed devices altogether for long-range applications such as rural broadband.” All use of the spectrum would yield is “Wi-Fi on tranquilizers,” the report said. The potential interference will also mean carriers are less likely to buy spectrum in the incentive auction, Brattle said. “Our analysis of an LTE network in a band similar to 600 MHz shows that a 5 percent loss of capacity due to interference from unlicensed operations in the guard bands will lower the value of the affected spectrum by 9 percent; a 20 percent loss of capacity will lower its value by 43 percent; and a 35 percent loss of capacity will eliminate most (93 percent) of its value.” Michael Calabrese, director of the Wireless Future Project at New America’s Open Technology Institute, told us he's not surprised by the report because Qualcomm has long opposed unlicensed use of TV spectrum, including the TV white spaces. "It simply reemphasizes our concern that Qualcomm is attempting to kill Wi-Fi in everything but the 2.4 GHz band," said Public Knowledge Senior Vice President Harold Feld.

Correction: The transmission method used for the two streams that FCC Incentive Auction Task Force Vice Chairman Howard Symons clarified that he meant to say were shared in last year’s channel sharing pilot between Los Angeles' KLCS and KJLA were in HD (see 1502240035). Dynamic reserve pricing is a limited exception to the rule that the commission freezes stations at a certain price rather than put them into the wireless portion of the 600 MHz band, an FCC official said.

AT&T and Verizon objected to an FCC proposal to boost wireless competition by putting impaired licenses, subject to a higher interference risk, in the pool of licenses for which they can bid in the TV incentive auction, in comments filed at the FCC in docket 12-268. CTIA said the FCC should keep the auction rules as simple as possible.

FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler believes the AWS-3 auction should promote competition, an agency official told us in response to T-Mobile President John Legere’s Wednesday blog post criticizing the sale of the brunt of the spectrum to three providers (see 1502180054). Wheeler supported policies that “will not permit dominant carriers to ‘run the table’ in the incentive auction, which includes a market-based reserve of spectrum for bidders who don’t currently have a lot of low-band spectrum,” the official emailed. The auction also has buildout requirements “to ensure that the spectrum is put to use for American consumers.” The commission will require new 600 MHz Band licensees to build out to 40 percent of the population in their service areas within six years and to 75 percent of the population by the end of their initial 12-year license terms, the official said.

Assistant Wireless Bureau Chief Brett Tarnutzer, one of the key FCC staffers working on the TV incentive auction, is leaving the agency to join the GSMA, where he will work for John Giusti, who heads the London-based group’s Spectrum Policy Team. Industry officials said in interviews that Tarnutzer’s departure is potentially significant since he's in charge of many of the technical aspects of making the auction work, including computing and the repacking software.

The FCC should look for new bands for wireless microphones to use, said NAB and CTIA in comments posted online in docket 14-166 Thursday. “It is critical for the FCC to immediately identify new bands on which wireless microphones may operate,” said NAB, urging the FCC to identify the new bands before the incentive auction ends. The FCC should explore new bands for wireless mics but require unlicensed operations to “cease use of licensed spectrum in areas where a 600 MHz licensee has commenced service,” CTIA said. The FCC should modify rules for unlicensed use so that unlicensed operations “adequately protect the substantial investments of 600 MHz licensees,” CTIA said. CEA also expressed concern about wireless microphone interference: “The Commission must weigh the costs and benefits of expanding access to spectrum for wireless microphone operators and undertake rigorous technical analyses to address potential interference concerns before it decides on any course of action.”

With the end of the AWS-3 auction, the upcoming incentive auction will be costlier, panelists at a spectrum conference sponsored by PwC said Thursday. It’s unclear how that will affect broadcasters on the reverse side of the upcoming incentive auction, said Eric Wolf, vice president of technology strategy and management at the Public Broadcasting Service. “There will be a lot more demand for spectrum,” said John Hane, a Pillsbury communications lawyer. “Another view is the AWS-3 auction is fundamentally different from the 600 MHz auction. AWS was a fairly straightforward auction -- people knew what they were bidding on. The 600 auction is very complex, even on the forward side of the auction.” The industry has “essentially forced consumers to stitch together the services that they want,” Wolf said. It can disaggregate and break up service from infrastructure, Hane said. He said he’s optimistic that ATSC 3.0 will be adopted. The “3.0 will make it a lot easier,” said John Lawson, principal of Convergence Services. “It seems like it’s happening, but there’s no structure to make these devices interoperable. We’re still in this scenario with silos.” Wolf said, “Don’t think about it as how many dollars per hertz or bits you can extract. Think about it as how can you help the consumer?” The FCC should be thinking of the consumer, too, and beyond the dollars, he said. “By 2025, I see the FCC trying to auction the T-band,” said Mike Gravino, director of the LPTV Spectrum Rights Coalition. “I see a constant struggle between the wireless industry and broadcast industry, even though we want to be the same, a struggle over this bandwidth.”

FCC Commissioner Mignon Clyburn opposes any unnecessary delays in holding the incentive auction, she said in an interview Friday. Clyburn clarified comments she made at CES about the need for a pause in the auction, now scheduled to start in early 2016 (see 1501080032). “I want to ensure we reach the proper decisions in the pending rulemakings and hold the incentive auction as expeditiously as possible,” she said. Clyburn also voiced concerns about how low-power broadcasters may be affected by the auction.