“Timing of availability” of ATSC 3.0 receivers will depend primarily on how quickly the FCC moves to authorize use of 3.0's physical transmission layer, America’s Public TV Stations, CTA and NAB told the FCC in Aug. 2 meetings with members of the Media Bureau, Office of Engineering and Technology and International Bureau, NAB said in a joint ex parte filing Thursday in docket 16-142. The associations want the FCC to launch a rulemaking on the transition by Oct. 1, they told the commission in reply comments in late June (see 1606280068). Consumer equipment manufacturers are unlikely to begin building ATSC 3.0 receivers into their products until the FCC “allows the voluntary use of the standard and there is something for those receivers to receive,” the ex parte filing said. Attendees included Media Bureau Chief Bill Lake, CTA Senior Vice President-Research and Standards Brian Markwalter, APTS CEO Patrick Butler and NAB officials including General Counsel Rick Kaplan. ATSC 3.0 receiver costs "will fall over time as the standard becomes more widely used and consumer demand spurs broader manufacture of Next Generation TV receivers,” said NAB. CTIA’s concerns are “unfounded” about the potential for ATSC 3.0 to interfere with wireless operations in the 600 MHz band, the groups told the commission. “CTIA supports the broadcast industry’s efforts to evolve, as long as it does not delay or disrupt the use of new 600 MHz licenses purchased at auction,” Scott Bergmann, vice president-regulatory affairs, emailed us Monday through a spokeswoman. CTIA used the identical language in its June 27 reply comments to summarize its position on ATSC 3.0. Further testing of the interference potential between wireless LTE and ATSC 3.0 “is unlikely to provide useful results,” APTS, CTA and NAB told the FCC. “There is no technical reason to believe that ATSC 3.0 creates a higher risk of potential inter-service interference” than the existing ATSC 1.0 service, they said.

Dish Network might use some or all the $2.5 billion it hopes to raise in a convertible note offering in the broadcast incentive auction. The company said in a news release Wednesday that proceeds from its debt offering announced the previous day "are intended to be used for strategic transactions, which may include wireless and spectrum-related strategic transactions, and for other general corporate purposes." In a note to investors Tuesday, Citigroup analyst Jason Bazinet said Dish's fundraising may point to its thinking it can buy spectrum in the 600 MHz auction below the spectrum's intrinsic value, with the longer-term goal of selling the company to an existing wireless company.

Bidirectional sharing, in which federal agencies could access some commercial spectrum, got a plug from the FCC’s top engineer this week, but progress has been slow on the issue, despite a multiyear push by DOD, industry observers said. The Commerce Spectrum Management Advisory Committee approved a report on the topic in June (see 1606080050), but the net effect was to call for a multiday, multistakeholder workshop. CSMAC members and others told us Wednesday that bidirectional sharing raises many difficult issues that won't be addressed overnight.

Public interest advocates met with FCC Commissioner Mignon Clyburn to express disappointment that the draft spectrum frontiers order “reportedly allocates” all but 600 MHz of more than 3,000 MHz in the 28, 37 and 39 GHz bands to exclusive licensing over wide geographic areas, said a filing on the meeting. Michael Calabrese, director of the Wireless Future Program at New America, and Harold Feld, senior vice president at Public Knowledge, met with Clyburn and staff. “Exclusive wide-area licensing by auction is a poor fit with the propagation characteristics of millimeter wave spectrum that is inherently intended for small cell deployments in localized, high-traffic areas in urban cores and busy indoor venues,” they told Clyburn. “If a few large carriers foreclose access to 80 percent or more of these [millimeter wave] frequencies, both outdoors and indoors, the likely outcome will be to leave the spectrum fallow in the vast majority of the country and in tens of millions of homes, businesses and community anchor institutions.” The order should also allocate at least half of the 37 to 37.6 GHz spectrum for shared, general authorized access, "or its equivalent," said the filing in docket 14-177.

Shure explained its opposition to an FCC order extending the Section 15.2031 prohibition on standard antenna jacks and connectors to wireless mics. “Wireless microphones are not practical candidates for aftermarket power amplifiers and as such do not create concerns regarding human safety or interference due to designs utilizing standard connectors,” Shure said. “Application of the Part 15 antenna connector rule to unlicensed wireless microphones would significantly inhibit manufacturing, raise consumer costs, and cause user confusion, thus complicating the transition of wireless microphones to the new 600 MHz band plan as a result of the broadcast Incentive Auction.” Body-worn wireless mics are often affixed “on or under the performer’s clothing or costume, mounted on an instrument, or, in theatrical productions frequently hidden in the performer’s hair,” the company said. “The microphone is then connected by a cable to a compact, body-worn transmitter that is also often concealed. The microphone and transmitter system must maintain an extremely small form factor to avoid restricting the performer’s freedom of motion.” There is little possibility anyone would affix a high-gain antenna to a Part 15 wireless mic, Shure said in docket 14-165.

Multiple stages of the incentive auction are seen as a near certainty and the process could last into 2017, broadcast attorneys, analysts and broadcasters told us after the release of the $86.42 billion clearing cost of the reverse phase of the auction after it ended at round 52 Wednesday. With auction costs and the $1.75 billion relocation reimbursement fund added on, forward auction bidders would have to more than $88 billion to prevent the auction from going to a second stage.

The FCC offered details on rules opening high-frequency bands for 5G, scheduled for a vote at its July 14 meeting. The FCC said in a fact sheet that the order adds a huge amount of spectrum to what's now available for licensed and unlicensed use, a point Chairman Tom Wheeler made in a major policy speech June 20 at the National Press Club (see 1606200044). The agency said it will impose limits on high-frequency spectrum holdings -- imposing restrictions limiting carriers to buying 1250 MHz of spectrum in the bands in the initial auctions and a threshold of 1250 MHz for case-by-case review of secondary market transactions. Satellite interests were at the commission last week to seek changes.

Sharing the 28 GHz band between fixed satellite service (FSS) and upper microwave flexible use licensees requires restrictions on UMFU skyward emissions to protect satellite broadband service, satellite industry representatives told Edward Smith of Chairman Tom Wheeler's office, according to an ex parte filing Thursday in docket 14-177. The restrictions would either put an aggregate cap on skyward equivalent isotropically radiated power density or require the FCC to codify and monitor UMFU device certification matters such as off-axis EIRP, power control and antenna down-tilt, they said. The commission as soon as next month may vote on rules helping 5G use the 28 GHz band already occupied by FSS (see 1606070059). The satellite representatives also said any rules need to prevent interference to satellite receivers, protect existing FSS earth stations "and allow reasonable deployment" of new co-primary FSS earth stations. Meeting with Smith were officials from EchoStar, OneWeb, O3b, ViaSat, Inmarsat and SES. In a separate meeting with International and Wireless bureaus and Office of Engineering and Technology representatives and with eighth-floor staffers, Nextlink Wireless said if the agency changes the geographic areas for UMFU licensees in the 28 GHz band, those licenses should be based on partial economic areas (PEA), the end result being harmonized license areas for all new 5G licensees. County-based licensing "present[s] many financial and technical challenges for incumbents and new operators alike," such as requiring investments in additional radios, construction, fiber backhaul and location rents, meaning bigger challenges for licensees in deployment and possible inadequate populations to support ongoing activities, Nextlink said in a filing in the docket Thursday. It also said. with the FCC planning to license 600 MHz spectrum, which will likely be used for some 5G services, based on PEAs, that would create greater uniformity among 5G licensees' license areas.

Key Commerce Department challenges include addressing FirstNet’s “adequacy of funding, effective consulting, internal control, and staffing and other organizational issues” and addressing an increasing demand for spectrum, Deputy Inspector General David Smith said in his office’s semiannual report to Congress, released this week (see 1605310058). Smith is now the acting inspector general, and the Senate Commerce Committee held a nomination hearing last month for the administration’s nominee for a permanent IG (see 1605100057). The IG’s report referred to President Barack Obama’s directive to make 500 MHz of spectrum available by 2020. “To meet the 2020 deadline, NTIA needs to incorporate the lessons learned from its research and development activities into actual strategies that lead to results -- as well as identify the availability of, and more efficient use of, radio frequency spectrum,” the 64-page IG report said. “Also, the termination of the Federal Spectrum Management System presents a challenge to NTIA’s capability to manage spectrum, it will still be in need of a technological system that can modernize, automate, and integrate key spectrum management functions.” In the course of an audit, the IG “found FirstNet’s process to inform federal agencies about the benefits” of its network “and its initial efforts to address federal agency challenges reasonable given the limitations on federal consultation mentioned throughout our report.” The IG recommended the FirstNet CEO “identify and document non-subjective performance indicators and milestones and define and document how each will be measured”; “identify steps to mitigate the risk of low federal participation in FirstNet’s Federal Stakeholder Engagement Plan,” and “perform and document analysis of federal consultation and outreach efforts, including analyses specific to the 14 agencies that compose the Emergency Communications Preparedness Center.” There's an ongoing audit of FirstNet’s “processes for entering into, monitoring, and closing its interagency agreements,” the IG noted. Five of nine broadband stimulus grant recipients IG reviewed “had excess equipment, $3.5 million in total, including equipment outside the needs of completing the grant projects,” the report said. “Also, we found that NTIA’s processes for identifying and disposing of [Broadband Technology Opportunities Program]-funded excess inventory were inadequate for effective management of these awards.” It found that $600,000 “may have been improperly disposed,” it said. The IG report also said five entities were debarred for three years after allegations that an unnamed stimulus grantee “misused and mismanaged grant funds and that a whistleblower employee of the subrecipient was terminated for disclosing the misuse and mismanagement.”

The FCC needs to carve out an exception to Section 15.201 of its rules for unlicensed wireless microphones “in light of the unique applications of microphones compared to other types of devices for which the rule was created,” Sennheiser said in a filing at the FCC. The wireless mic maker reported on a meeting with officials from the FCC Office of Engineering and Technology. The FCC approved new rules for wireless mics last August tied to the TV incentive auction and 600 MHz band repacking (see 1508060050). “Sennheiser discussed possible scenarios for modifying existing equipment to ensure operations would meet the new rules, and the equipment certification implications, using the clearing target band plan as an example,” Sennheiser said. The company said professional productions require interference protection from white space devices. “A pathway for this needs to exist for legitimate performing arts companies that do not meet the 50 microphone threshold for licensed operation,” it said. Sennheiser also said it proposed alternate frequencies in the 169-172 MHz band that could be used for wireless mics. "With regard to the 1.4 GHz band, Sennheiser noted that the 30 MHz spectrum limit was unexpected and not needed." the company said. "Use is limited to specific licensees and circumstances, and the frequency coordinator is well-situated to determine whether the number of channels requested by [a] licensee is necessary and appropriate." The filing was posted Wednesday in docket 12-268.