FCC To Start Tackling Broadcast Spectrum Issues This Year

Lazarus says schedule includes a start for more than 60 rulemakings on spectrum

By John Eggerton -- Broadcasting & Cable, 4/8/2010 1:40:42 PM

The FCC has released its broadband implementation schedule. The release was announced by FCC Chief of Staff Edward Lazarus, who said it would include a 2010 start for its spectrum reclamation plans, though Lazarus said the commission is sensitive to broadcasters ongoing and important role.

That came in a speech at the Media Institute in Washington Thursday.

Saying that it is time to reduce talk to practical results, Lazarus told his media exec audience that the schedule includes a 2010 start for more than 60 rulemakings on broadcast spectrum, auctioning of the D-Block, mobile roaming, gateway devices, pole attachments, broadband data, special access, rights-of-way, wholesale competition, and many, many others.

He conceded that some stakeholders may not like the order in which the plan was being implemented, but that at least by seeing the agenda all at once, they would also see that items they do like are on there as well. "Seeing the array of proceedings laid out together is a powerful reminder of the scope and vision of the broadband plan," he said.

He also said, perhaps somewhat hopefully, that "almost everyone could see strong positives counterbalancing, and even swamping, the negatives."

The commission has said that there will be effectively monthly proposed rulemakings and inquiries over the next 12-16 months.

Lazarus says the agenda will be sensitive to the past and present, as well as a sense of its own fallibility.

On the issue of spectrum, Lazarus said that the recommendations for freeing up spectrum will echo that sensitivity.

Lazarus said the recommendations for freeing hundreds of megahertz of spectrum for wireless use "include no flash cuts, but also no compromise on the ultimate goal."

He said the future demands that the FCC get that new spectrum. "But a key mechanism for obtaining additional spectrum, the incentive auctions that would allow broadcasters, on a voluntary basis, to give back some spectrum while sharing in the proceeds of spectrum auctions, is a classic example of modulating between the competing calls of present and future." He said the plan recognizes and will support "the extremely valuable services that broadcasters continue to deliver to the nation."

He did not put a timetable on concluding the rulemakings, but said "we intend to get to all of it, and as expeditiously as we can."

Lazarus was asked after the speech to react to the court decision overturning the FCC's BitTorrent decision. He said it had only been two days and the FCC was still considering its options, but he said he remained convinced the FCC has the authority to implement the broadband plan. "At the end of the day, we're going to move forward with our policy agenda. We don't believe that court decision deprives us of the ultimate authority to do so." He said the process would not be a two-day process--the decision was rendered Apr. 6--but that it would also not be a long process. "This is something we need to make decisions about relatively soon."

He would not answer a question about whether the FCC would reclassify broadband service under Title II.

The FCC will obviously be putting a lot of its attention on implementing the plan, he said, but not to the exclusion of the other issues and responsibilities on its plate.