Free Access & Broadcast Telemedia, LLC has weighed in on the CTIA response to the FCC’s incentive auction program. Among its arguments is that CTIA isn’t so much against LPTV participation as it is against anything that would slow down the process.
And that includes considering the many issues the LPTV community has been raising.
FAB contends that the FCC has failed in its obligation to assess the benefits of allowing LPTV licensees into the auction; that the FCC may not lawfully consider spectrum currently occupied by LPTV stations as vacant; and that the FCC overstepped its authorization regarding the amount of spectrum set aside for unlicensed devices.
According to FAB, CTIA briefly commented on FCC treatment of LPTVs, agreeing that LPTV is “secondary and has no formal protection rights.” But FAB says CTIA is silent regarding LPTV’s participation in the auction, which it interprets as a lack of opposition. “Rather,” wrote FAB, “CTIA’s essential concern is that it does not want the auction to be slowed down by having the Commission take into account issues the LPTV industry has raised.”
The Greenhill spectrum relinquishment estimates were released late, says FAB, and require clarification, particularly in regards to exactly how much spectrum the FCC is actually targeting.
FAB says that the SBA is required to do a cost-benefit analysis of the impact of the auction on LPTV, and stated that it needs to see information given to SBA by the FCC in this regard.
Finally, FAB notes that two expected big spectrum bidders, Google and Microsoft, are sitting on $62B and $89B in cash on hand and have massive borrowing power on top of that. Their combined wealth is said to be triple the expected amount raised by the auction.
“Thus,” wrote FAB, “their clamor for free spectrum on the backs of legitimate bona fide, largely small-business LPTV licensees seems a bit more than greedy to FAB.”
The document was prepared and signed by Melody A. Virtue of Garvey Schubert Barer and Glenn B. Manishin of Troutman Sanders.
