As expected, the FCC has scheduled a number of spectrum reclamation, repacking and flexible use items on the agenda for its Nov. 30 meeting.
According to a just-released agenda, the FCC will vote to change its rules to allow mobile broadband use of the spectrum currently allocated to broadcasters.
The FCC will also vote to explore more "dynamic" and flexible use of the spectrum. Both are part of its plan to recover up tyo 120 Mhz of broadcast spectrum for mobile broadband by both paying broadcasters to clear off and making more efficient use of the spectrum that is freed up as well as that remaining in broadcasters' hands.
As an added bonus, the FCC will also persent an overview of the Twenty-First Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act and plasn for implementing it.
That is the bill that passed at the end of the last Congress updating communications law to make digital TV and video streaming on the Internet more accessible.
Among other things, the bill requires the captioning of any online video that is closed captioned on TV, and asks the FCC to study captioning of Web-original video. It also requires smart phones and other mobile devices to be accessible to the disabled, if that is achievable, and restores the FCC's video description rules thrown out by the courts in 2002.
