FCC Spectrum Dashboard Has Shortfalls, Broadcasters Say; FCC Eyes Improvements

"The inventory ought to be everything,” by including spectrum used by the military and other government agencies, said CEO Brian Brady of Northwest Broadcasting, owner of five TV stations. “Wherever it is, it should be looked at,” said Brady, also chairman of the Fox affiliates group. “There has to be a complete and full inventory of all spectrum before you start talking about taking spectrum from one industry and giving another industry essentially the opportunity to buy it."

The FCC is aware of those issues and is working to improve the dashboard, agency officials said Friday. The NAB has said the regulator hasn’t yet conducted a thorough inventory (CD March 18 p1). The association and many of its members contend that must be done before Congress should consider passing legislation for the government to share proceeds with TV stations putting their spectrum up for auction, to reallocate it for wireless broadband. A more complete inventory isn’t needed because the commission already has a database of spectrum, Media Bureau Chief Bill Lake told broadcasters on a private webinar held Thursday, several industry officials who participated said.

The dashboard will have information on low-power TV stations added to it, over time, Office of Engineering & Technology Chief Julius Knapp said. As it stands, the regulator knows where stations operate within the TV band, he added. The spectrum tool was developed with a vision of incorporating a federal inventory into it, as many bands are occupied by both commercial and government entities, Knapp said. The FCC and NTIA haven’t decided how to proceed with any such integration, he said. A challenge for the commission is to judge whether spending tens of millions of dollars, and at least several years, on a complete measurement of spectrum is worthwhile given the need to put spectrum to its best use, Knapp said. He said there’s also the potential that further analysis won’t result in anything significantly different than the information the FCC has now.

The dashboard doesn’t adequately measure the extent to which licensees are using their allotment, said TV-station group executives and industry lawyers. They said the shortfalls of the database may make members of Congress reluctant to approve incentive auction legislation. “Clearly this is the big megillah,” an executive of a TV station group said of incentive auctions. “The Republican House certainly questions that authority, and I am somewhat dubious as to whether the authority exists to reimburse broadcasters that vacate” their airwaves, the executive said.

Current FCC initiatives including the dashboard don’t amount to a true inventory, said CEO Vince Sadusky of LIN Media, which runs 32 stations. “The FCC should undertake a detailed inventory, and find out what parties have exactly what spectrum, and what spectrum is available,” before seeking incentive auction authority, he said. “We need a thorough spectrum inventory -- whether Congress authorizes incentive auction legislation or not. They are two separate issues. And it would be a shame to rush to a decision without having all of the data points.” Those seeking the reallocation of spectrum for high-speed Internet service over cellphones and other portable devices, such as CEA and the CTIA, contend broadcasters are engaging in foot-dragging and that a further inventory isn’t needed.

The FCC dashboard doesn’t provide a real-time snapshot of how spectrum is being deployed, broadcast executives and lawyers said. That means the agency has no way to officially measure the extent to which spectrum is occupied yet not used, or the extent to which it’s being used to provide service, they said. “The FCC has a way to go before they can claim that they know how much their spectrum is occupied, taking into account both the frequency and time domains,” said lawyer Peter Tannenwald of Fletcher Heald. “The spectrum dashboard is certainly not the answer, as it reports on the frequency domain and not how much time is occupied by each user.”

"Like any website or ongoing initiative, the data and information is constantly being updated,” an FCC spokesman said. “But the information we have on the Spectrum Dashboard and License View webpages is accurate and will stand the test of time.” Knapp said the dashboard is part of a “baseline assessment” that’s based on “data we've collected, our knowledge of commercial licensees’ current services and our ongoing efforts and activities to ensure the most efficient use of spectrum.”

The tool has been available for about a year, including time in “beta” form before it officially debuted, so the agency has had “ample time” already to show it amounts to a complete inventory, said lawyer Harry Cole, also of Fletcher Heald. The regulator’s “reliance on the spectrum dashboard as the authoritative FCC inventory is belied by the FCC’s own words,” he said, citing caveats the commission gave on the dashboard, at http://xrl.us/bincjt. “The data and analyses contained herein are not relied upon by the Commission in analyzing the competitive marketplace or assessing the spectrum holdings of wireless service providers in any particular geographic area,” the site said. “The Spectrum Dashboard does not constitute the official licensing records for the Commission.”