Rockefeller: No Forced Spectrum Reclamation

Says he had "good talks" on issue with NAB president

By John Eggerton -- Broadcasting & Cable, 5/12/2011 4:43:05 PM

Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D- W. Va.) says he wants to get an incentive auction/emergency communications network bill passed by June, and certainly before the 10th anniversary of Sept. 11. But he also says broadcasters will not be forced of spectrum in the process.

The bill would pay for the creation, care and maintenance of a national, interoperable broadband emergency communications system with proceeds from an auction of spectrum, including broadcast spectrum. Congress has to give the FCC authority to compensate broadcasters and others--Rockefeller mentioned pager companies, for one--for moving off and freeing up that spectrum.

Broadcasters certainly want to be compensated if they give up spectrum, but the National Association of Broadcasters is concerned that the FCC's idea of voluntary is not theirs.

In a meeting with reporters to put an exclamation point on his ongoing calls for passage of the bill, Rockefeller was asked what support he had from broadcasters.

"I have had good talks with [NAB President and former senate colleague] Gordon Smith about it," he said. "The word voluntary is very, very important to him." Language that says the spectrum reclamation must be voluntary is part of the Rockefeller bill. "Some broadcasters [will say] 'The government's going to move in and the FCC is going to move in and they are going to take away our spectrum. That's not going to happen."

He said it will have to be voluntarily offered to the FCC. He added that: "Gordon Smith relaxes when he hears the word voluntary," says Rockefeller.

Smith is unlikely to relax entirely until he has assurances from the FCC that the broadcasters who don't opt for auctions are also held harmless, which is part of the "voluntary" definition on which NAB and the FCC disagree. Broadcasters argue that moving or repacking remaining stations isn't voluntary, while FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski has said such moves, which the FCC says it will need to make to free up contiguous 20 mHz blocks of spectrum for wireless broadband, are part of the FCC's existing authority.

Rockefeller said he has assurances from the FCC that it is 100% behind allocating spectrum for the public safety network rather than auctioning it for a public-private partnership, as was the FCC's initial proposal in the National Broadband Plan. The FCC tried once before to auction the spectrum, as directed by Congress but failed to draw a minimum bid. Some argued that is because of the build-out and other requirements it put on the auction.

Dick Mirgon, former president of the Association of Public Safety Communications Officials, who was also on the call, said that public safety "cannot rely on commercial networks for our broadband. We need our own secure network," he said.

"To me it's disgraceful and embarrassing and costly to our country that, since September 11, 2001, we have done nothing to change the way that our public safety officials can communicate with each other... on a nationwide basis. The 9/11 Commission specifically tasked the Congress with doing this and the Congress has not done this," he said.