Now is the time for terrestrial TV broadcasters to start planning for the deployment of ATSC 3.0, said a new “transition and implementation guide” published Wednesday by Pearl TV, Sinclair and several broadcast equipment suppliers and consulting firms. Broadcasters have “moved with urgency and focus to finalize the ATSC 3.0 standard in an unprecedented time frame,” says the elaborate 81-page report, which also lists American Tower; Dielectric; GatesAir; Ericsson; Harmonic; Hitachi-Comark; Meintel, Sgrignoli & Wallace; and Triveni Digital as “contributors.”

Preston Padden, who advises broadcasters on the incentive auction, slammed wireless carriers for their failure to step up and bid at a level that would bring the auction to an abrupt end. The FCC is in the second stage of the reverse auction as it determines the next clearing target. Padden cited comments by former President Bill Clinton Monday that Obamacare was "the craziest thing in the world." Padden suggested a revised comment. "President Clinton was wrong,” Padden emailed. “It is not Obamacare that is 'crazy,' it is carriers continuing to say they need more low band spectrum and then not bidding strongly in the 600 MHz auction. Every time we move to a new Stage, the carriers give up some of the spectrum they claim to need."

The extent to which the FCC will set aside additional high-frequency spectrum for Wi-Fi and other unlicensed uses was an area of contention in comments on the Further NPRM released by the agency in July as part of its focus on 5 GHz (see 1607140052).

The FCC's Incentive Auction Task Force is seeking comment on a proposed repacking plan that would divide repacked broadcasters into 10 staggered phases, prioritize the reassignment of TV stations in the wireless band, and attempt to minimize the number of times consumers have to rescan channels, said Media Bureau Chief Bill Lake and IATF Deputy Chairwoman Jean Kiddoo on a news media call Friday. Officials said the plan, filed in docket 16-306, takes broadcaster concerns such as a shortage of tower crews and the short repacking period into consideration. Since the phased plan will give broadcasters earlier notice, they will have more time to prepare for the repacking, Lake said.

The increased convergence of wireless and wireline networks -- due to the wireline backhaul needed to support the numerous 5G wireless cell sites and the increased access of wireline networks by wireless devices -- will give the cable industry a particularly big advantage in wireless due to its wired infrastructure, MoffettNathanson analyst Craig Moffett emailed investors Wednesday: "Cable wins in wireless just as it has won in wired broadband." Cable networks already are in essence wired backhaul layers "with a wireless short-hop access layer," Moffett said, pointing to consumer use of wireless tech. "He who has the best wired network (i.e. the cable operators) will ultimately win in wireless," since it will be cheaper for cable operators to add a wireless access layer atop their existing wireline infrastructure than for wireless operators to do the reverse, Moffett said. Pointing to Comcast's plans for a wireless service rollout next year (see 1609200042), Moffett said the operator exercising its Verizon mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) agreement will likely be "just the first piece of Comcast's entry into the wireless business." The cable company will put as much traffic as it can over its own W-Fi network and likely buy spectrum in the current broadcast incentive auction and ultimate have a hybrid network that uses Verizon as fill-in, he said, saying Comcast likely will try to buy a national 20 MHz-wide block for as much as $9 billion. The company also likely will sell some spectrum in Telemundo/NBC duopoly markets, he said. Charter Communications -- which also has activated its Verizon MVNO -- might also enter a joint venture with Comcast to jointly build out the 600 MHz spectrum layer, with each adding its wire networks to provide the capacity layer in-region, Moffett said.

Verizon isn't interested in pursuing Dish Network to get ahold of its spectrum or for any other reason, said Chief Financial Officer Fran Shammo at a Goldman Sachs investor conference Thursday. Shammo, who's soon departing (see 1609010085), also said Verizon won’t offer unlimited data plans. Shammo offered his take on Dish without being asked directly. Goldman analyst Brett Feldman asked him about Verizon plans for acquiring additional spectrum. Feldman said he appreciated Shammo couldn’t talk about the incentive auction. “Don’t ask me about Dish, either,” Shammo shot back. “The answer is no.”

Wireless industry lawyers and analysts at the CTIA meeting in Las Vegas last week were mostly bearish on the outlook for the TV incentive auction. With Dish Network’s pursuit of 600 MHz spectrum in doubt, and Comcast not expected to be a major player, industry observers said the three major national carriers that are bidding, AT&T, T-Mobile and Verizon, all have to be concerned about their balance sheets and may not push prices that much higher than the current bids. The reverse auction's second phase starts Tuesday (see 1609120064).

LAS VEGAS -- The FCC doesn't appear poised to take on rules for a high-frequency spectrum auction, providing carriers with more spectrum for 5G, agency and industry officials said at the CTIA annual meeting. CTIA President Meredith Baker during a keynote Wednesday asked the FCC to get started on the auction while Tom Wheeler is still chairman (see 1609070033).

LAS VEGAS -- The FCC is making the spectrum available it will need to launch 5G, but backhaul remains a big issue, Chairman Tom Wheeler told the CTIA annual conference. He didn’t offer any rosy predictions for the TV incentive auction, promising only that it will determine whether 600 MHz spectrum is worth more to carriers than to broadcasters. CTIA President Meredith Baker urged the FCC to schedule an auction of high-frequency spectrum while Wheeler is still chairman. Wheeler was president of CTIA from 1992 to 2004.

Stage one of the forward part of the TV incentive auction closed Tuesday, at $22.4 billion in net proceeds. Supply and demand hit an equilibrium in the largest markets, triggering the FCC bringing the stage to a close, under rules approved for the auction, in the final round of the day. The auction had slowed considerably in recent days. A stage closes when there's no more excess demand for Category 1 blocks in the top 40 partial economic areas (PEAs), the size of the license being sold in the auction.