Political resolve rather than money or a dearth of other suitable federal spectrum is the major impediment to clearing the 1755-1780 MHz band of federal users, said FCC Commissioner Ajit Pai in a broad-ranging speech Thursday in Pittsburgh. Pai also called for a firm schedule for the incentive auction of broadcast TV spectrum.

Legislation like the 1992 Cable Act opened the door for broadcasters to make money on retrans as the number of over-the-air customers declines, Bergmayer said. “You want to look at ways to ensure that broadcasters … are not able to take this government granted privilege to just sort of leverage it … to basically drive up peoples’ cable bills,” he said. “We've seen increasing consolidation in the broadcast market,” with companies like Sinclair and Tribune “consolidating local broadcasters to increase their leverage in retransmission consent,” he said: While over-the-air broadcasting “seems like an obsolete technology, it’s as profitable as ever because of the public policies the FCC has set up in other bureaus."

Few details emerged Tuesday as lawmakers pressed Gary Epstein, chair of the FCC’s Incentive Auction Task Force, for information on the commission’s work to structure the spectrum incentive auctions authorized by the Middle Class Tax Relief and Job Creation Act. Epstein told lawmakers during a House Communications Subcommittee oversight hearing that the commission has made “no final determinations” and has sought to engage “with all interested parties in an open and transparent process.” Epstein said he couldn’t confirm whether the auction would take place in 2014, but said “we will do everything we can in the commission to make that happen."

The FCC Incentive Auction Task Force released preliminary data on the repacking process for the incentive auction, including information about the TVStudy repacking software and data on Canadian and Mexican TV allotments, said a public notice released at our deadline Monday. “The material being released represents the results of a staff analysis of whether a television station could be assigned to particular channels in the incentive auction repacking process, consistent with statutory and other requirements, based on certain preliminary assumptions,” it said. The information includes supporting data for determining the coverage area and population served of each station and “descriptions of how one could pre-calculate which stations could be assigned to which channels in the repacking process, and which stations cannot operate on the same channels or adjacent channels” because of their locations, said the notice. “As directed by Congress, the FCC will ensure this process makes all reasonable efforts to preserve the coverage area and population served of each broadcast television licensee,” said a commission spokesman. The released data is the first of what the notice said will be several releases of information on the repacking, including “details about how bids will be selected, how channels will be assigned, and algorithms for carrying out these and other elements of the repacking process” that will “be made public in the coming months.” “T-Mobile appreciates the FCC moving forward on the broadcast incentive auction by providing important information related to repacking for broadcasters -- a key component for maximizing the amount of spectrum available and making the 600 MHz incentive auction a robust opportunity for wireless broadband,” said T-Mobile Vice President Kathleen Ham. “We look forward to reviewing their proposals and commenting in the weeks ahead."

The hotly contested debate over spectrum aggregation and unlicensed spectrum rules will likely continue at Tuesday’s House Communications Subcommittee oversight hearing on the FCC’s spectrum auction, according to advance testimony that circulated Monday. Representatives from T-Mobile and AT&T will offer opposing arguments for why the implementation or lack of a spectrum cap for larger carriers will reduce the amount of revenue from the auction. Meanwhile, broadcasters plan to lay out their top concerns about participation incentives, spectrum repacking proposals and interference issues, among other issues, according to prepared testimony. The hearing is scheduled for 10:30 a.m. in 2322 Rayburn, and the following witnesses are set to testify: FCC Senior Advisor and Co-Lead, Incentive Auction Task Force, Gary Epstein; Harold Feld, senior vice president, Public Knowledge; Kathleen Ham, T-Mobile vice president-federal regulatory affairs; Rick Kaplan, NAB executive vice president-strategic planning; Joan Marsh, AT&T vice president-federal regulatory affairs; and Preston Padden, executive director of the Expanding Opportunities for Broadcasters Coalition.

AT&T’s proposed buy of Leap Wireless for $1.2 billon is a small fraction of the size of AT&T’s failed pursuit of T-Mobile in 2011, a $39 billion deal. In fact, the $3 billion breakup fee AT&T paid T-Mobile, plus spectrum, was bigger than the Leap deal. Nonetheless, the newly proposed transaction quickly stirred up opposition and is likely to see more as regulators at the FCC and Department of Justice consider it. The announcement (CD July 15 p1) caught FCC officials mostly by surprise, though CEO Randall Stephenson made a round of calls to the commission just before the news release went out, agency officials told us.

A variable 600 MHz band plan would create “interference challenges” and could require hundreds of kilometers of physical separation between TV transmitters and wireless operations, said NAB in a meeting with FCC staff Monday, according to an ex parte filing and accompanying PowerPoint presentation released Thursday (http://bit.ly/18NpDKL). Variable band plans, such as those proposed in the FCC’s 600 MHz band plan public notice (CD May 21 p4), could involve interference “from mobile handsets or base stations to DTV reception” and “interference from high power DTV transmissions to lower-powered wireless operations,” NAB said. The minimum separation between broadcast stations and wireless operations would be “about 350 km,” said NAB. The association’s PowerPoint presentation includes a chart giving the distance between New York City and surrounding cities -- Philadelphia is 138 kilometers away, Boston 301 kilometers and Washington 331 kilometers. These large separation distances could “substantially” limit market variability on the East Coast, and spectrum recovered in one city could limit how much could be reallocated elsewhere, NAB said. The “separation distances needed result in wireless exclusion zones across much of the region,” NAB said.

With the FCC still developing a band plan for the 600 MHz band, the FCC forwarded a proposal for the next World Radiocommunication Conference that would open much of the 460-890 MHz band for both mobile broadband and broadcasting. Broadcasters in particular question how the FCC can recommend that the entire broadcast band should be reclassified as suitable for other use, especially with commissioners yet to approve a band plan for 600 MHz spectrum.

FCC Commissioner Ajit Pai said Tuesday that now that the comment cycle is complete it’s time for the FCC to make clear that it’s embracing a “Down from 51” plan for the 600 MHz band and that an alternative plan floated in a May 17 public notice is now off the table. Reply comments on the notice were due Friday (CD July 2 p1) as the agency works toward a 2014 target date for an incentive auction of broadcast TV spectrum.

There is a “growing consensus” in favor of a “Down from 51” plan for the 600 MHz band following an incentive auction of broadcast TV spectrum, CTIA told the FCC in reply comments. NAB made similar points. Both major trade groups also highlighted an issue that has gotten less mention to date: problems posed by potential co- and adjacent-channel interference in a variable band plan. NAB asked why the issue has been ignored by FCC staff that is developing rules for the auction. Reply comments were due Friday on a May 17 Wireless Bureau public notice exploring the advantages of a “Down from 51 reversed” band plan as well as on a proposal to use time-division duplexing (TDD) instead of frequency-division duplexing (FCC) (CD June 18 p1).