Broadcasters are pleading with the FCC to rethink its decision to move forward with reallocation of some of broadcasters’ backhaul spectrum.
The process went into effect Oct. 16 and is aimed at giving new technologies some of the newsgathering spectrum stations rely on beam footage from remote locations to their studios.
The Society of Broadcast Engineers argued in an appeal this week that inaccuracies continue to plague a database of receiver sites and it’s impossible to predict when new users will create interference.
One thing is for certain, the society said: The new rules "will lead inescapably to a substantial number of instances of interference" to stations’ continuing backhaul service.
FCC staff has acknowledged that much data remain flawed but insist that inaccuracies can be fixed on a case-by-case basis. Broadcasters already received one six-month delay from the original April effective date.
