Massachusetts Legislators Advise FCC to Mind the Border

Say it needs to protect constituents' broadcast service

By John Eggerton -- Broadcasting & Cable, 10/31/2012 5:00:46 PM

Led by Democratic Rep. Ed Markey, members of the Massachusetts congressional delegation, have written FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski to advise him to make the incentive auctions transparent to Congress as well as the public, and urged him to make sure that stations along the border with Canada -- which include ones serving Boston and other Massachusetts markets -- are not adversely affected by repacking.

"Many of our constituents, especially low-income individuals, Spanish speakers and seniors, are reliant on free, over-the-air programming," they said. They added that cord-cutters are also a constituency that underscores the need to preserve over-the-air signals.

The legislators said they support freeing up spectrum for wireless broadband -- the motivating factor behind the auctions -- but that given the public interest obligations of broadcasters to provide local news, local programing and emergency info (public interest obligations that wireless providers are not subject too, they did not add, but could have), they said it was important also to ensure that the public continues to receive free, over-the-air service.

They advised the FCC to take the border issues into account through "rigorous and public examination."

FCC officials have said they continue to discuss border issues with Canada and Mexico. The issue is with interference protections that reduce the amount of available spectrum for reclamation along the border, but those officials have suggested they have no plans to leave U.S. border cities without broadcast service, but instead may have to scale back the amount of spectrum they reclaim.