The FCC should reject a proposal from wireless...

The FCC should reject a proposal from wireless companies to allocate the primarily broadcaster-used 470-698 MHz range of UHF spectrum to mobile uses on “a co-primary basis with broadcasting,” said CBS, Disney, Fox, NAB, NBCUniversal, Univision and several network affiliate groups in comments filed Tuesday on draft recommendations of the 2015 World Radiocommunication Conference FCC Advisory Committee. The wireless proposal also suggests removing a requirement that incumbents on the frequency have to agree to deployment of new mobile services in the band. “If the FCC accepts the AT&T and Verizon proposal, the U.S. would become the only country in the world without spectrum dedicated to broadcast television as a primary use,” said NAB in a news release. “We are hopeful the FCC rejects this wireless industry proposal, which if approved could result in harmful radio transmission interference among neighboring countries, and seriously compromise the integrity of the U.S. television airwaves,” said an NAB spokesman. “That allowing high powered broadcast and mobile broadband operations in the same band creates the potential for harmful interference between services should be beyond dispute,” said NAB. Though it conceded that some broadcaster spectrum in the affected band may need to be reallocated to a mobile use, that shouldn’t happen without “additional sharing and compatibility studies,” NAB said. The wireless proposal “reflects a scientifically unsound approach that ignores current open proceedings intended to gather further information concerning required separation distances between broadcast television and wireless operations in a headlong rush by the wireless industry to mark the entire UHF band as its territory,” NAB said in the comments (http://bit.ly/Mawl42).