NAB & CTIA are joined by three others in a letter to the Congressional Super Committee charged with reducing the federal deficit, asking it to reject a provision in the jobs bill that would empower the FCC to impose more than $4 billion in new spectrum user fees over 10 years.
By Harry A. Jessell
TVNewsCheck
Broadcasters and wireless operators may be at odds over spectrum auctions, but they are allies in their opposition to spectrum fees.
In a joint letter to the Super Committee that is looking to trim $1.5 trillion from the federal deficit through cost cutting and revenue raising, the leading lobbies for the two industries — the NAB and CTIA - The Wireless Association — along with three other trade groups yesterday asked the panel not to adopt a provision of the President Obama's jobs bill that would empower the FCC to impose more than $4 billion in new spectrum user fees over 10 years.
"This legislation ignores the considerable annual regulatory fees already borne by our respective industries and the tens of billions of dollars in private capital expended annually by wireless, satellite and commercial, non-commercial and public radio operators alike to build networks and invest in the infrastructure necessary to serve the American public," the letter says.
The spectrum users are acutely aware of the country's economic problems, it says. "We do not believe, however, that the solution to unemployment lies in the imposition of new fees and taxes that will inevitably shift money from much needed capital investment in state-of-the-art communications technologies critical to the health of the American economy."
Also signing on to the letter were the Satellite Industry Association, National Religious Broadcasters and PCIA — The Wireless Infrastructure Foundation.
The bipartisan Super Committee comprises 12 members of the Congress — six senators and six representatives. It is also considering authorizing the FCC to auction spectrum that broadcasters agree to give up for a share of the proceeds.
The committee sees it as another source of badly needed revenue. While the wireless industry favors the auction, most broadcasters fear that another disruption of the TV band would cause irreparable harm to the medium, even if participation in the auction is voluntary.
THE FOLLOWING LETTER WAS ALSO SENT TO THE SUPER COMMITTEE YESTERDAY
Dear Members of the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction:
As the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction considers spectrum auction proposals as part of its deficit reduction deliberations, the Open Mobile Video Coalition (“OMVC”), whose members include more than 900 of the nation’s television stations and many leading technology companies, urges you to include broadcaster protections to ensure continued viewer access to their local television stations, including Mobile DTV. Failure to include such provisions could stymie the launch of Mobile DTV, an exciting new service that viewers want and that is taking its place as an important component of the evolving broadband ecosystem.
Mobile Digital Television – TV on the Go– is an innovative new broadcast service that provides real time news, weather, emergency alerts and favorite programming to viewers wherever they go — on their mobile phones, tablets or laptops. With over 100 stations already offering Mobile DTV across the country today, this new technology is on track to reach two-thirds of U.S. households by early 2012. A glimpse at this exciting new service can be found at: http://www.mdtvsignalmap.com/omvc/
Consumers especially value Mobile DTV for news, weather and real time emergency information. During the August earthquake in the Washington DC area, OMVC test users received real time local broadcast services on their Mobile DTV enabled devices even as they were evacuated from their workplaces and unable to place and receive calls on their mobile phones because of network congestion. Their experience mirrored that of viewers in Japan during last March’s earthquake and tsunami, when public safety authorities relied on Mobile DTV offered by TV broadcasters to disseminate real time information about evacuation plans and rescue operations simultaneously to viewers throughout the country, since wireless networks were shut down.
If the Congress seeks to raise revenue by reallocating existing television spectrum for wireless broadband through voluntary spectrum auctions, it should ensure that the following provisions are included in any legislative proposal:
• Preserve viewer access to local television stations, including Mobile DTV, by replicating existing station service areas and covered populations in connection with any forced relocation of television stations to new channels (“repacking”) as part of the spectrum auction process.
• Enable television broadcasters to continue to innovate and provide Mobile DTV by preventing
the FCC from involuntarily moving television stations from the UHF band to the VHF band.
• Reimburse television broadcasters for their costs associated with repacking (new transmitters,antennas, retrofitting, etc.).
We ask you to take the deployment of broadcast Mobile DTV into account as the committee considers spectrum auction provisions. Federal spectrum policymaking must ensure that consumers are able to receive free over the air Mobile DTV, including news and emergency services.
Thank you for the consideration of our views.
Sincerely,
Vince Sadusky
President
Open Mobile Video Coalition
CEO LinTV
The Open Mobile Video Coalition is a nationwide alliance of over 900 broadcast television stations whose mission is to promote the development and deployment of Mobile DTV. Leading Device Manufacturers Dell, Harris, Intel, LG Electronics, Samsung Mobile and Siano are among the Coalition’s non-broadcast members.
