Federal Communications Commission Chairman Tom Wheeler agreed to be the lone witness at the House Communications Subcommittee FCC oversight hearing May 20, where he could hear it from both sides of the aisle on network neutrality, and Subcommittee Chairman Greg Walden (R-OR) indicated May 19 that it was not going to be a triumphal return for Chairman Wheeler.
Wireless competition is good for consumers — even if it costs taxpayers extra
Filed Under: Benton Headlines
The Federal Communications Commission, under the leadership of freshly-confirmed chairman Tom Wheeler, is hard at work on rules that will govern an upcoming spectrum auction. AT&T and Verizon, the nation's largest wireless carriers, want the FCC to hold an unrestricted auction that could allow them to maintain or even widen their lead in premium low-frequency spectrum. Their smaller competitors, especially T-Mobile, are urging the FCC to adopt rules to guarantee that the largest carriers do not wind up with a disproportionate share of that spectrum.
Will 21st century broadcasting use the airwaves?
Filed Under: Benton Headlines
The number of people watching broadcast TV with the aid of an antenna is a fraction of what it used to be; about 90% of U.S. homes tune in these channels via some form of pay TV. If Fox decided to shut down its transmitters tomorrow, it would cut off only 10% of its viewers, many of whom might quickly sign up for cable just so they could keep watching "American Idol." And doing so would not only end the threat Aereo poses to the retransmission fees Fox receives from pay-TV operators, it could conceivably enable them to demand higher amounts from those operators -- and from the Aereos of the world.
Supporting Innovative Approaches to Spectrum Sharing
Filed Under: Benton Headlines
The President’s strategy for expanding the capacity of high-speed wireless broadband services across the Nation may get a boost from a new Defense Department Initiative to fund research and development of innovative new approaches to spectrum sharing. Under one strategy for maximizing spectrum efficiency, commercial broadband providers are permitted to share spectrum bands that otherwise would be allocated for exclusive Government use, or vice versa; this approach can increase the productivity of a band that was designated for a specific purpose decades ago but is underutilized today.
The Broadcast Television Spectrum Incentive Auction: A Staff Summary
Filed Under: Benton Headlines
Congress, in passing the Middle Class Tax Relief and Job Creation Act of 2012 in early 2012, authorized the FCC to conduct incentive auctions, with the first auction to be of broadcast television spectrum. Congress further directed that certain net proceeds from the broadcast incentive auction are to be deposited in the Public Safety Trust Fund to fund a national first responder network, state and local public safety grants, and public safety research, and the balance is to be used for deficit reduction.