The National Association of Broadcasters and the Association
for Maximum Service Television are among the list of broadcasters saying thanks
but no thanks to a proposal to remake their service into a low-power one using
distributed transmitters so that stations could be packed closer together
and spectrum freed for wireless broadband.
In a filing with the FCC on the FCC's national broadband
plan, NAB and MSTV said the proposal was an "important advance" in
their thinking because it recognizes the public interest in preserving
broadcasters entire spectrum allocation and consumers investment in digital
sets, as well as ensuring broadcasters wouldn't foot the bill for any spectrum
reallocation.
But they said no thanks to the plan, saying they could not
endorse the proposal for a number of reasons including that it would undermine
local service, impose significant new costs, cause harmful service losses and
would not help out in the congested areas where wireless companies claim the
most spectrum deficits.
The broadcasters said the proposal by CTIA: The Wireless
Association and the Consumer Electronics Association was
"well-intentioned" but "infeasible."
Instead, they advised the FCC to treat wireless, broadband
and broadcasting as complementary services, "each with a necessary role to
plan in the healthy, innovative, universally available communications
ecosystem."
The FCC has begun emphasizing the "ecosystem"
character to communications, a sort of a greening of the communications
language landscape to suggest interdependence and a certain fragility.
