NAB, MSTV Say No Thanks to FCC Proposal to Remake Broadcast Service Into Low-Power

Groups say plan would undermine local service

By John Eggerton -- Broadcasting & Cable, 1/28/2010 6:55:52 PM

The National Association of Broadcasters and the Association for Maximum Service Television are among the list of broadcasters saying thanks but no thanks to a proposal to remake their service into a low-power one using distributed transmitters so that stations could be packed closer together and spectrum freed for wireless broadband.

In a filing with the FCC on the FCC's national broadband plan, NAB and MSTV said the proposal was an "important advance" in their thinking because it recognizes the public interest in preserving broadcasters entire spectrum allocation and consumers investment in digital sets, as well as ensuring broadcasters wouldn't foot the bill for any spectrum reallocation.

But they said no thanks to the plan, saying they could not endorse the proposal for a number of reasons including that it would undermine local service, impose significant new costs, cause harmful service losses and would not help out in the congested areas where wireless companies claim the most spectrum deficits.

The broadcasters said the proposal by CTIA: The Wireless Association and the Consumer Electronics Association was "well-intentioned" but "infeasible."

Instead, they advised the FCC to treat wireless, broadband and broadcasting as complementary services, "each with a necessary role to plan in the healthy, innovative, universally available communications ecosystem."

The FCC has begun emphasizing the "ecosystem" character to communications, a sort of a greening of the communications language landscape to suggest interdependence and a certain fragility.