European spectrum regulators are beginning to think, albeit tentatively, about whether incentive auctions could be used to allocate 700 MHz “second digital dividend” spectrum, they said. The U.K. Office of Communications (Ofcom) appears to be out ahead, having consulted earlier this year on the potential use of incentive or “overlay” auctions for the band. The EU Radio Spectrum Policy Group (RSPG), a high-level group drawn from national spectrum authorities that advises the European Commission on spectrum policy, hasn’t addressed the issue head-on but recently published reports on spectrum for mobile broadband and long-term consideration of the future of the UHF band.

CEA continues to support a “Down from Channel 51” band plan for the 600 MHz band following the incentive auction of broadcast TV spectrum, it told the FCC in a letter to the agency (http://bit.ly/16plhGV). CEA said it was making additional technical arguments based on “a significant amount of feedback from engineering teams at CEA’s member companies.” CEA said the FCC should: “Identify the amount of paired spectrum available in most markets nationally; For markets which can support exactly this amount, allocate the paired spectrum with an appropriate duplex gap and guard bands for DTV and Channel 37 services; For markets which can support more than this amount, allocate the additional spectrum to SDL [supplemental downlink] (with appropriate guard bands); and For constrained markets where the amount of spectrum is insufficient to support the national paired spectrum, make that spectrum available as SDL -- specifically, allocate a guard band below the 700 MHz services, then SDL, then a guard band prior to DTV or Channel 37 service allocations.” CEA said the 600 MHz band plan poses some tricky technical issues. “But these issues can be addressed through careful consideration of the costs and benefits associated with potential solutions, and a reasoned approach that respects technical realities, consumer demands and expectations in terms of end user devices, and market forces in the design and manufacture of communications infrastructure,” the group said.

Representatives of Broadway discussed the importance of protecting wireless mics in the 600 MHz band, in a meeting with members of the FCC’s Incentive Auction Task Force, said an ex parte filing at the commission. Among those attending was six-time Tony award winner Harvey Fierstein. “Mr. Fierstein provided a first-hand, user’s perspective on the importance of wireless microphones, intercoms, and cue-and-control devices to today’s sophisticated theatrical productions,” the ex parte filing said (http://bit.ly/15gXOcl). “Audiences accustomed to high-quality sound from motion pictures and home theatres demand the same level of aural experience in a professional theatre setting. Actors can provide subtle, nuanced performances with amplified sound that are impossible if they must strain to play to the back of the house. Stage movements would be dangerous or impossible with microphone cables trailing along."

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.