Wireless mic maker Sennheiser formally asked the FCC to reconsider parts of its incentive auction report and order on wireless mics. As of June 2010, companies had to take all 700 MHz mics out of service and replace them with devices that use 600 MHz spectrum, the company said in a filing in docket 12-268, not yet posted by the FCC. “Now, if the 600 MHz spectrum auction and TV band repacking proceed as planned, microphone users will lose most of their remaining spectrum,” Sennheiser said. A proposal to allow continued operations in the 600 MHz guard bands won’t make up for the loss, Sennheiser said. “The guard bands are likely to receive out-of-band emissions from neighboring operations and to have power limits inconsistent with some uses of wireless microphones,” the company said. “Moreover, a performer’s ear monitors require frequencies separated from those for the microphone, resulting in a need for two distinct bands in UHF.” Sennheiser asked the FCC to “revisit its policies so as to make adequate UHF spectrum available.” Several options are available, including reserving “naturally occurring” vacant channels and Channel 37 for wireless microphones, “or setting aside additional spectrum from that to be auctioned,” the company said. The FCC should also require auction winners to pay the cost to move mics to other frequencies, Sennheiser said: “The Commission has recognized elsewhere the inequity of leaving incumbents to bear their own costs of relocating to a different band for the sole benefit of auction winners.” The German company said wireless mics are vital to the U.S. economy. “Wireless microphones are ubiquitous in all aspects of the entertainment business, in news reporting, in sports, and in U.S. commercial, civic, and religious life,” Sennheiser said. “They are essential to the production of virtually all non-studio broadcast events, and to nearly all studio-produced programs as well.”

Sprint won’t participate in the FCC’s upcoming AWS-3 auction but “will continue to evaluate the opportunities presented by the upcoming 600 MHz incentive auction,” a spokesman said Friday. Industry observers had anticipated that Sprint wouldn’t get involved in the AWS-3 auction due in part to its interest in next year’s incentive auction (CD Sept 12 p1). Friday started an eight-week “quiet period” when “few to no” secondary spectrum transactions are likely to occur because parties interested in bidding in the AWS-3 auction can’t speak to one another during the two months before the auction’s Nov. 13 start date, said Wells Fargo analyst Jennifer Fritzsche in a note to investors. The “explosive” growth in mobile data usage since the U.S.’s last significant spectrum auction in 2008 and significant uncertainty about the incentive auction mean carriers will “see this as their last chance to get their hands on some spectrum for a while (at least from the government),” Fritzsche said.

LAS VEGAS -- Compared with the TV incentive auction, the AWS-3 auction, which starts Nov. 13, got much less attention at the Competitive Carriers Association and CTIA conferences this week. Industry officials disagreed on the extent to which smaller carriers are likely to go big in the 65 MHz AWS-3 auction. CCA concluded Wednesday while CTIA wrapped up Thursday.

A draft order and Further NPRM on interservice interference after the incentive auction will reject calls from NAB and broadcast industry engineers for a cap on the total amount of aggregate interference a station can receive, a senior FCC official told us. The item was circulated by Wheeler this week (CD Sept.9 p4) along with other auction-related draft NPRMs on low-power TV, wireless mics and the commission’s Part 15 rules, the official said. The wireless mic and Part 15 NPRMs are slated for the commission’s Sept. 30 meeting, while the interference and LPTV items are on circulation for electronic voting, said the official.

The tentative agenda for the FCC meeting Sept. 30 includes an order to eliminate the sports blackout rules, and a comprehensive review of licensing and operating rules for satellite services, the commission said in a news release Tuesday (http://bit.ly/1COFw0t). The sports blackout rule item comes after FCC officials told us some commissioners strongly wanted to end the rule (CD Aug 4 p6). The FCC received thousands of letters from the public on both sides of the issue last month, including from the “Protect Football on Free TV” campaign. It’s time “to sack the sports blackout rules for good,” FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler said in an op-ed in USA Today (http://usat.ly/WMjUAW). There are nearly 20,000 letters from that campaign, led by former NFL player Lynn Swann, an NFL spokesman said. He also referred us to Swann’s August statement urging the FCC to “put sports fans interests above pay-TV special interests and keep the rules” (CD Aug 26 p15). The current system is “working a lot better for the league [NFL] and its owners than it is for the fans, who on average pay nearly $500 to take a family of four to a game,” he said. “If the league truly has the best interest of millions of American fans at heart, they could simply commit to staying on network television in perpetuity.” FCC rules shouldn’t reinforce a system “that works against viewer choice,” said John Bergmayer, Public Knowledge senior staff attorney. Private parties shouldn’t be able to use government regulations “as an excuse to limit what people can see,” he said in a news release (http://bit.ly/1tIqqHh). Also at the meeting, the commission will vote on a Further NPRM to streamline and update Part 25 rules on licensing and operation of satellites and earth stations, the FCC said. The comment period on the streamlining of more than 100 rules closed last year (CD Feb 15/13 p4). Also on the agenda are an NPRM revising rules for unlicensed operations in the TV bands and new 600 MHz band, and an NPRM on the needs of wireless mic users, it said.

The FCC set the pleading cycle for T-Mobile’s proposed $50 million buy of lower 700 MHz A-block licenses from CenturyLink subsidiary Actel. The companies contend the deal “would allow T-Mobile to expand its coverage and offer improved services to its customers,” said a Wednesday public notice (http://bit.ly/1qqzg5G). “The Applicants further contend that T-Mobile would become a stronger competitor in the subject markets and nationwide, which would enhance competition and improve the quality of services in the mobile wireless marketplace.” The deal would give T-Mobile 12 MHz of spectrum in 179 counties in all or parts of 50 cellular market areas, the agency said. After the buy, T-Mobile would hold 32-82 MHz of spectrum in each of those CMAs. According to the PN, T-Mobile does not own any spectrum below 1 GHz in those markets. Petitions to deny are due Sept. 3, oppositions Sept. 15 and replies Sept. 22. In April, T-Mobile wrapped up its $3.3 billion acquisition of low-band spectrum from Verizon, giving the carrier for the first time a significant amount of sub-1 GHz spectrum (CD April 24 p10). T-Mobile is widely expected to be a major player in next year’s TV incentive auction of 600 MHz spectrum.

T-Mobile and Sprint filed petitions for reconsideration at the FCC asking the agency to change key parts of its May 15 spectrum holdings order, which restricted the ability of AT&T and Verizon Wireless to buy licenses in the TV incentive auction. The carriers had scored a late win with the final rules assuring each the ability to buy 20 MHz of spectrum in the auction under almost all scenarios (CD May 16 p4). The petitions were filed Monday in docket 12-269 and posted by the FCC Tuesday.

The FCC March 15 spectrum aggregation order, while helping to bring some closure to the issue of spectrum holdings, may raise more questions for companies seeking to combine, said wireless industry lawyer Angela Giancarlo of Mayer Brown, in a report published by Bloomberg BNA (http://bit.ly/1s25V4Z). Giancarlo pointed to the commission’s suggestion that, under the new policies, certain entities proposing to merge may face restrictions in the forward part of the TV incentive auction of 600 MHz spectrum. By adding 101 megahertz of 2.5 GHz spectrum to the screen, the commission raises the specter of significant and potentially unsolvable issues in the event it receives a transaction application involving this band, she wrote.

While on the surface work on the TV incentive auction has slowed at the FCC, agency officials tell us members of its Incentive Auction Task Force are working long hours to get various public notices and rulemakings ready for release starting late this summer. More than 50 FCC staffers from the auction team, the Wireless and Media bureaus, the Office of Engineering and Technology and other parts of the agency are doing significant amounts of work to prepare for the auction, agency officials said.

The FCC Office of Engineering and Technology seeks comment on its measurements of LTE interference with DTV receivers, said an OET public notice Friday (http://bit.ly/1nYA43l). OET wants comment on whether its measurements support conclusions about interservice interference, including that LTE interference with DTV stations will appear “nearly identical” to interference from other DTV stations. OET wants comment on the relevance of measurements associated with two outdated receiver models, it said. “OET anticipates that these receivers will no longer be commercially available and will be approaching the end of their useful lifecycle at the time of the wireless build out in the 600 MHz Band.” Comments are due July 11.