Broadcasters Ready to Abandon Support for Sharing Proposal in 1755 MHz Band After BAS Dispute with Carriers

"CTIA appears to have derailed the process,” said Rick Kaplan, NAB executive vice president. “Broadcasters were making real and even surprising progress with DOD on a potential sharing solution in the BAS spectrum with an eye towards unlocking 50 megahertz of prime spectrum for the wireless industry at 1755 and 2155 MHz,” said Kaplan, NAB’s auction point man. “But now that CTIA is concurrently pushing a proposal to reallocate to its members 15 megahertz of the very BAS spectrum we are attempting to share, that is a bridge too far. It simply won’t work and it now appears that their insatiable appetite for spectrum is likely to sink the promising opportunity of clearing 1755-1780 MHz for wireless broadband."

CTIA is “aware of the complexities associated with relocating certain federal services so that the 1755 band can be made available for commercial service, something that is a very high priority for the industry,” said CTIA Vice President Jot Carpenter. “While we prefer to address those concerns as the comment process plays out at the FCC, we hope NAB will remain engaged in a positive way."

David Donovan, a member of the Commerce Spectrum Management Advisory Committee who raised concerns about DOD’s proposal at the August CSMAC meeting, told us he agrees with the NAB concerns. “The CSMAC spent a lot of time and effort analyzing the sharing possibilities of DOD communications systems,” said Donovan, president of the New York State Broadcasters Association. “Sharing is not easy. I just don’t understand CTIA’s position. It undermines the very real progress made by DOD and the television industry. The key goal is to allow DOD systems to move to new spectrum and also have broadcasters maintain a viable [electronic newsgathering] system for providing live on the spot coverage of local news and emergencies. Moving DOD systems and facilitating sharing should be the primary public policy focus, and not CTIA’s attempt to occupy both the 1755-1780 band as well as 15 MHz in the BAS band."

Several industry observers said they're concerned that NAB’s backing away from support of the sharing proposal could derail the push to open the 1755-1780 MHz band, a longtime focus of carriers. One wireless industry lawyer who works for carriers and other companies said NAB appears to feel it has been painted into a corner because of CTIA’s move on BAS spectrum. “It’s hard to say at this early stage what impact this would have” if NAB walks away, said Harold Feld, Public Knowledge senior vice president. “Clearly this moves more easily if everyone is on the same page. But whether NAB can actively derail the proposal, or whether they would look for some other way to make sure that their BAS operations avoid negative impact remains to be seen."

The bigger question “is whether NAB sees itself losing out over time by continuing to cooperate with CTIA,” Feld said. “NAB and several of the wireless companies already have flash points of disagreement over the incentive auction. Now NAB apparently feels that CTIA has tried to cut them out on 1755-1780. Does NAB continue to try to cooperate on spectrum reallocation and spectrum efficiency? Or do they go back to where they were five years ago, fanatically determined to keep everyone out of ’their’ spectrum as a matter of policy?”