North American broadcasters could lose 40% of the spectrum

The issue arising from the digital dividend is not a controversy that only affects Europe. The North American FCC has just presented a plan that aims to generalize broadband in more than one hundred million homes by reducing the spectrum to broadcasters...

According to the new National Broadband Plan prepared by the North American Federal Communication Commission (FCC), broadcasters could lose up to 40% of their spectrum in favor of new broadband services that aim to generalize 100 Mbps access to more than one hundred million American homes.

With the goal of doubling the number of homes with broadband access, Congress, at the proposal of the FCC, is currently debating the possibility of reallocating 40% of the broadcasting spectrum.

The goal of the plan is to bring 100 Mbps broadband to more than one million homes within ten years. The bands used for this deployment would be 500 MHz in the long term (ten years) and 300 MHz in the next five, which would harm the interests of broadcasters that now operate on these frequencies.

According to the data managed by the FCC at this time, it would only have 50 MHz in its inventory, a minimal part of what would be necessary to satisfy the growing demand and comply with the plan proposed by the Administration.

The plan suggests an incentive auction plan among current concessionaires with the FCC being willing to share the income generated by this dividend with broadcasters that voluntarily commit to continuing their digital broadcasts using less spectrum.

NAB reaction

The National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) has expressed some satisfaction that the FCC initiative is voluntary among broadcasters, although it has expressed concern about reports that maintain that many aspects of the plan would not actually be as voluntary as originally promised, fearing that this dividend distribution would ultimately extract new spectrum usage fees applicable to broadcasters. The NAB has reminded the FCC that they have already released 108 MHz in the digital transition, thus compromising a quarter of what broadcasters have traditionally been using.