Wireless mic companies and performing art groups appear headed to victory in their fight to get the FCC to change rules so smaller users can operate wireless mics in TV white spaces spectrum. The main opponent has been Microsoft, which argues other spectrum already is available for wireless mics and the TV white spaces should be protected. Reply comments were posted this week.

The FCC OK’d more long-form applications for 600 MHz licenses bought in the incentive auction, said a public notice Thursday. Approved licensees include Farmers Telephone Cooperative, Omega Wireless and Mach FM. Petitions to deny the applications must be filed by Oct. 23, oppositions Oct. 30, replies Nov. 6.

A public notice announcing how much of the $1.75 billion repacking reimbursement fund will be allocated upfront to broadcasters will be issued “soon,” FCC Incentive Auction Task Force staff said Tuesday. Many broadcasters have been holding off on ordering repacking-related equipment until the amount of reimbursement money is announced, said broadcast attorneys and NAB filings in docket 14-252. IATF said the initial allocation would be “an amount sufficient to allow stations and MVPDs to get started with their channel transitions." NAB, Ion and other broadcasters pressed the IATF in recent weeks to offer more of the funds upfront (see 1709280068). IATF Chair Jeanne Kiddoo said the commission wants to hold some of the fund in reserve to deal with any differences between estimated and actual costs and to avoid having to get back funds from broadcasters with lower-than-expected expenses (see 1707270051).

A letter that House Republican Conference Chairman Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Wash., and Rep. Anna Eshoo, D-Calif., are circulating (see 1709290060) would in part urge FCC Chairman Ajit Pai to not allow any delays in the existing 39-month repacking timeline, according to text of the letter we obtained Friday. The letter would urge Pai to ensure incentive auction spectrum is “cleared no later than July 13, 2020, as currently scheduled.” Lawmakers have been considering whether to include language in final repack legislation to grant the FCC more authority to not penalize broadcasters that can't meet the existing timeline (see 1709070058). “Clearing the 600 MHz band as quickly as possible is a critical component of the ongoing effort to deploy high-speed internet to rural America and close the digital divide,” the letter says. “We are concerned that delays to the 39-month repacking timeline established by the FCC will impede the billions of dollars of private sector investments in infrastructure necessary for achieving this goal.” Delays in the 39-month timeline “would not only harm constituents in our districts, especially those in rural areas who do not have access to broadband or have only limited, unreliable wireless service, but also threaten to slash the financial contributions that spectrum auctions make” to the U.S. budget,” Eshoo's office said in an email seeking additional lawmakers' signatures on the letter. At least 39 other House members already had signed the letter, including House Majority Whip Steve Scalise, R-La.

The “engineering trade-offs” of building ATSC 3.0 reception into smartphones would make a tuner mandate “inappropriate" for those devices, and the FCC should “refrain from considering such a requirement sought by the broadcasters,” said Skyworks Solutions, a supplier of front-end modules and other components for smartphones, in a filing posted Friday in commission docket 16-142.

T-Mobile “has no issue with voluntary adoption of ATSC 3.0 technology," but is “concerned” about calls for an FCC mandate to “force inclusion of the technology” in smartphones, it told Media Bureau and Office of Engineering and Technology staff in Tuesday meetings, said a filing Wednesday in commission docket 16-142. “Counter to the assertions of NAB” that it and its fellow 3.0 petitioners never called for tuner mandates (see 1709250053), “several parties, including NAB members, have argued for Commission action to mandate ATSC 3.0 reception in mobile devices,” said T-Mobile. Its PowerPoint presentation to FCC staff listed the Advanced Television Broadcasting Alliance of low-power TV interests as calling for a tuner mandate in smartphones when 3.0 broadcasts are available to 25 percent of the U.S. population and noted that NAB TV board members Sinclair and Gray have seats on the alliance board. Other 3.0 “mandate proponents” include Free Access & Broadcast Telemedia and Sinclair’s One Media subsidiary and Mark Aitken, Sinclair’s vice president-advanced technology, T-Mobile said. The carrier referenced One Media's May 9 comments in the FCC's 3.0 rulemaking in which it appeared to dip a toe in the water of backing future tuner mandates, though it actually stopped well short of asking the commission to impose them now (see 1705110053).The PowerPoint also referenced an Aitken quote from our Sept. 13 report (see 1709120020) in which he said that “our concern, be it demonstrated by T-Mobile and others, is that, in fact, the free market is not functioning the way that regulators believe it can or should.” That report also quoted Aitken as saying: “To be clear, we’ve not asked for a mandate. We believe in the free market. We hope that the free market can prevail.” The PowerPoint said T-Mobile was the "largest winner of 600 MHz band spectrum" in the incentive auction, and is "working to rapidly deploy competitive wireless services" in that band.

​Add Qualcomm and Ethertronics, a supplier of embedded antennas and RF components for mobile devices, to companies opposing an ATSC 3.0 reception in smartphones requirement and saying an FCC mandate would be a bad idea. The issue has been a hotbed for discussion in docket 16-142 for the past 10 days as the commission works toward meeting its self-imposed deadline of releasing by year-end an order authorizing voluntary deployment of 3.0 (see 1709180039). Qualcomm “broadly agrees” with T-Mobile’s Sept. 11 white paper (see 1709120020) detailing “significant challenges associated with supporting ATSC 3.0 reception in new mobile devices.” The chipmaker said “any proposal to mandate that mobile devices incorporate support for ATSC 3.0 should be out of the question.” Requiring 3.0 support in mobile devices “would unduly impact device performance, the efficient use of spectrum, and mobile device competition,” said the company. “ATSC 3.0 receiver operation can cause interference to 4G LTE and 5G radios operating in the same device." Ethertronics said challenges of “incorporating both 600 MHz LTE and ATSC 3.0 technologies” in a single smartphone are “substantial.” There are “practical limits to the acceptable size” of a mobile device that consumers will be “willing to purchase,” it said.

Nokia added its voice to the growing chorus of handset makers that oppose a possible FCC mandate for ATSC 3.0 reception in smartphones, though the commission hasn't proposed one. “Such a mandate would present technical challenges and disserve the public interest,” said Nokia in a letter posted Friday in docket 16-142. Nokia, which sold its smartphone business to Microsoft, joins Ericsson and Motorola in arguing that 3.0 reception in smartphones is a bad idea because it would require handset form-factor changes that consumers would reject or would degrade cellular coverage performance (see 1709150039 and 1709130050). T-Mobile was the first to cite its opposition, alleging Sinclair is oversimplifying the complexities of building 3.0 into smartphones, and a mandate wouldn't serve the public interest (see 1709120020). Sinclair denies seeking a mandate but said overcoming complexities of 3.0 in smartphones is a worthy challenge. The FCC has a self-imposed deadline of a 2017 order authorizing 3.0 as a final voluntary standard (see 1702230060). Nokia is “actively working with several carriers to supply equipment for expeditious deployment of networks” supporting the 600 MHz band, the company wrote. For smartphones to receive 3.0, they would need to operate at “additional frequencies, possibly as low as 470 MHz,” Nokia said. If the same antenna is used to receive 3.0 signals in the 470-608 MHz band in addition to the 600 MHz band, “antenna performance is likely to degrade,” it said. “This antenna performance degradation can directly translate into significant loss in the coverage benefit typically provided by these lower frequencies.” Whatever “limited physical space” exists in a smartphone “should be available for more valuable uses than ATSC 3.0,” such as MIMO operation, for which there exists “very valid business justification,” said the company. “A new antenna design” will be needed, it said. “The ATSC 3.0 chip will also need to be accommodated on the device next to the cellular circuitry. The ATSC 3.0 receiver chain will need to be isolated from the cellular receiver chain to mitigate any interference issues.”

Motorola Mobility “overstates the complexities" associated with building ATSC 3.0 reception into smartphones (see 1709130050), said Robert Folliard, chairman of the Advanced TV Broadcasting Alliance of low-power TV interests. Folliard’s group is urging the FCC to require ATSC 3.0 reception in smartphones when 3.0 broadcasts become available to 25 percent of the U.S. population. Motorola said that policy position has the company “concerned” because mandating 3.0 smartphone functionality “without regard to consumer demand is not in the public interest,” and would involve “significant technical challenges and limitations.” But Folliard thinks “many of the same issues identified by Motorola are ones that carriers must solve in order to take advantage of the 600 MHz spectrum recently purchased in the auction,” he told us Wednesday. “Regardless, the challenge is worth unraveling since the upside to consumers is so high.”

Apple’s endorsement of the Qi wireless charging standard in its iPhone 8 and X announcements Tuesday (see 1709120062) is “huge” for the wireless charging industry, engineering consultant LeRoy Johnson told us Wednesday. After Apple’s entry into the Wireless Power Consortium in February, there were questions whether Apple would use Qi or a “variation” of Qi, said Johnson. The confirmation of full Qi compatibility on next-generation iPhones opens the door for a broad wireless charging infrastructure, said Johnson. Apple’s adoption “is going to make people start demanding it, asking for it at their desk at work, in their cupholders in cars, on nightstands,” he said. Johnson believes the infrastructure will build quickly in public spaces. There’s an installed base of some 90 smartphone models with Qi built in, said Johnson.