http://www.engadget.com/2010/01/13/fcc-backs-off-talk-of-forcefully-reclaiming-spectrum-from-tv-bro/ Engadget Comments for FCC backs off talk of forcefully reclaiming spectrum from TV broadcasters http://www.engadget.com/media/feedlogo.gif http://www.engadget.com en-us Copyright 2012 Weblogs, Inc. The contents of this feed are available for non-commercial use only. Blogsmith http://www.blogsmith.com/http://www.engadget.com/2010/01/13/fcc-backs-off-talk-of-forcefully-reclaiming-spectrum-from-tv-bro/http://www.engadget.com/2010/01/13/fcc-backs-off-talk-of-forcefully-reclaiming-spectrum-from-tv-bro/
Eminent domain on seems to be used when it screws over the little guys.]]>Jan 13th 2010 2:03PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/01/13/fcc-backs-off-talk-of-forcefully-reclaiming-spectrum-from-tv-bro/http://www.engadget.com/2010/01/13/fcc-backs-off-talk-of-forcefully-reclaiming-spectrum-from-tv-bro/
The broadcasters don't "own" the spectrum.

Anyway, they should have to pay for it if they want it, especially if they're going to charge cable cos. fees to rebroadcast it.]]>Jan 13th 2010 2:25PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/01/13/fcc-backs-off-talk-of-forcefully-reclaiming-spectrum-from-tv-bro/http://www.engadget.com/2010/01/13/fcc-backs-off-talk-of-forcefully-reclaiming-spectrum-from-tv-bro/Jan 13th 2010 6:13PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/01/13/fcc-backs-off-talk-of-forcefully-reclaiming-spectrum-from-tv-bro/http://www.engadget.com/2010/01/13/fcc-backs-off-talk-of-forcefully-reclaiming-spectrum-from-tv-bro/
Broadcasters just spent hundreds of millions upgrading their infrastructure to broadcast ATSC because of a government mandate, and the promised new revenue streams due to additional subchannels have yet to materialize. The local television business has never been so rough and should stations start going dark and/or consolidating into conglomerates the American people will be worse off for it IMHO. ]]>Jan 14th 2010 6:32PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/01/13/fcc-backs-off-talk-of-forcefully-reclaiming-spectrum-from-tv-bro/http://www.engadget.com/2010/01/13/fcc-backs-off-talk-of-forcefully-reclaiming-spectrum-from-tv-bro/Jan 13th 2010 2:19PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/01/13/fcc-backs-off-talk-of-forcefully-reclaiming-spectrum-from-tv-bro/http://www.engadget.com/2010/01/13/fcc-backs-off-talk-of-forcefully-reclaiming-spectrum-from-tv-bro/Jan 13th 2010 2:30PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/01/13/fcc-backs-off-talk-of-forcefully-reclaiming-spectrum-from-tv-bro/http://www.engadget.com/2010/01/13/fcc-backs-off-talk-of-forcefully-reclaiming-spectrum-from-tv-bro/Jan 13th 2010 3:49PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/01/13/fcc-backs-off-talk-of-forcefully-reclaiming-spectrum-from-tv-bro/http://www.engadget.com/2010/01/13/fcc-backs-off-talk-of-forcefully-reclaiming-spectrum-from-tv-bro/I'm late to the party. I know Optimum/Cablevision offers it if you're in the Bronx. Don't know about the other boroughs and what the other companies are doing.]]>Jan 14th 2010 1:06AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/01/13/fcc-backs-off-talk-of-forcefully-reclaiming-spectrum-from-tv-bro/http://www.engadget.com/2010/01/13/fcc-backs-off-talk-of-forcefully-reclaiming-spectrum-from-tv-bro/For sure they know what they are doing.]]>Jan 13th 2010 2:22PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/01/13/fcc-backs-off-talk-of-forcefully-reclaiming-spectrum-from-tv-bro/http://www.engadget.com/2010/01/13/fcc-backs-off-talk-of-forcefully-reclaiming-spectrum-from-tv-bro/
There are plenty of people who use OTA TV (myself included), it is perfect now that it is all digital and in HD. The cable companies are losing customers to it since they save hundreds of dollars a year switching to OTA with no picture quality loss. And the 18-30 year olds that use mobile smartphones and pad the pockets of the telecom industry are probably the same numbers as the number of people watching OTA TV.

Now, if they were going to setup free public internet access (slower speed) for everyone using a few megahertz of OTA TV spectrum (that was the same range nationwide), then I might change my mind.]]>Jan 13th 2010 2:25PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/01/13/fcc-backs-off-talk-of-forcefully-reclaiming-spectrum-from-tv-bro/http://www.engadget.com/2010/01/13/fcc-backs-off-talk-of-forcefully-reclaiming-spectrum-from-tv-bro/Jan 13th 2010 3:47PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/01/13/fcc-backs-off-talk-of-forcefully-reclaiming-spectrum-from-tv-bro/http://www.engadget.com/2010/01/13/fcc-backs-off-talk-of-forcefully-reclaiming-spectrum-from-tv-bro/Jan 13th 2010 3:59PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/01/13/fcc-backs-off-talk-of-forcefully-reclaiming-spectrum-from-tv-bro/http://www.engadget.com/2010/01/13/fcc-backs-off-talk-of-forcefully-reclaiming-spectrum-from-tv-bro/Agree. I pretty much gave the finger to dish network and switched to OTA. Cable is similar to OTA, 95% if the time there is nothing worth watching. I've found shows like Invader Zim, Hey! Arnold, and Myth Busters via torrents so I'm good. Demonoid FTW.]]>Jan 13th 2010 11:07PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/01/13/fcc-backs-off-talk-of-forcefully-reclaiming-spectrum-from-tv-bro/http://www.engadget.com/2010/01/13/fcc-backs-off-talk-of-forcefully-reclaiming-spectrum-from-tv-bro/
They should reclaim all the spectrum licenses for analog broadcast slots as well as "white space" and any other reserved spectrum that is not actually being utilized or being utilized but by legacy equipment. And by this I mean anything that is not current technology gets reclaimed, such as forcing a move of all the cordless phones to the DECT digital spectrum just like they did with TV.

Then hold another spectrum auction selling country wide licenses only, with the proceeds divided equally among all the current holders, regaurdless of location.

]]>Jan 13th 2010 2:31PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/01/13/fcc-backs-off-talk-of-forcefully-reclaiming-spectrum-from-tv-bro/http://www.engadget.com/2010/01/13/fcc-backs-off-talk-of-forcefully-reclaiming-spectrum-from-tv-bro/Jan 13th 2010 2:37PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/01/13/fcc-backs-off-talk-of-forcefully-reclaiming-spectrum-from-tv-bro/http://www.engadget.com/2010/01/13/fcc-backs-off-talk-of-forcefully-reclaiming-spectrum-from-tv-bro/Jan 13th 2010 2:52PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/01/13/fcc-backs-off-talk-of-forcefully-reclaiming-spectrum-from-tv-bro/http://www.engadget.com/2010/01/13/fcc-backs-off-talk-of-forcefully-reclaiming-spectrum-from-tv-bro/
The deal for DTV broadcasts was that they got new spectrum and had to "return" the analog TV spectrum once the changeover occured (which it finally did). That spectrum has been auctioned or will be.

This is the current DTV broadcast spectrum.]]>Jan 13th 2010 3:23PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/01/13/fcc-backs-off-talk-of-forcefully-reclaiming-spectrum-from-tv-bro/http://www.engadget.com/2010/01/13/fcc-backs-off-talk-of-forcefully-reclaiming-spectrum-from-tv-bro/Jan 13th 2010 2:57PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/01/13/fcc-backs-off-talk-of-forcefully-reclaiming-spectrum-from-tv-bro/http://www.engadget.com/2010/01/13/fcc-backs-off-talk-of-forcefully-reclaiming-spectrum-from-tv-bro/Jan 13th 2010 4:05PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/01/13/fcc-backs-off-talk-of-forcefully-reclaiming-spectrum-from-tv-bro/http://www.engadget.com/2010/01/13/fcc-backs-off-talk-of-forcefully-reclaiming-spectrum-from-tv-bro/I agree. I have no problem with the FCC regulating things, but this action seems unnecessary to me. We will inevitably run out of available spectrum and then we will have to rely on technological advances and efficiency to increase speeds and capacity. Why not leave the OTA spectrum alone and start relying on technological advances now.

I don't have cable tv and I do most of my tv watching over playon/hulu/netflix, but once and a while I'll switch on the converter and watch me some OTA DTV. The selection is a lot crappier, but at least it's something, and it's free.]]>Jan 13th 2010 6:14PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/01/13/fcc-backs-off-talk-of-forcefully-reclaiming-spectrum-from-tv-bro/http://www.engadget.com/2010/01/13/fcc-backs-off-talk-of-forcefully-reclaiming-spectrum-from-tv-bro/Jan 13th 2010 4:35PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/01/13/fcc-backs-off-talk-of-forcefully-reclaiming-spectrum-from-tv-bro/http://www.engadget.com/2010/01/13/fcc-backs-off-talk-of-forcefully-reclaiming-spectrum-from-tv-bro/
If 4 broadcast areas overlap, then you could recover almost the same amount of spectrum space if you cut things down to ~12 channels per market.

Yes, doing this would probably cut back on some OTA TV. I haven't checked lately, but I used to get some pretty weird OTA TV years ago. I definitely think some of that spectrum space would have been better allocated to wireless Internet.

Even if you can't get rid of ~20 ATSC channels everywhere, maybe it would make sense to some of them outside of major cities. I might be wrong here, but it seems like that would still be useful. In lower-density areas it seems like it would make sense to deploy cell towers with a large footprint and a large capacity. You'd need extra spectrum space to get that large capacity. In urban areas you can just build lots of towers each with a small footprint and a relatively small capacity. ]]>Jan 13th 2010 7:28PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/01/13/fcc-backs-off-talk-of-forcefully-reclaiming-spectrum-from-tv-bro/http://www.engadget.com/2010/01/13/fcc-backs-off-talk-of-forcefully-reclaiming-spectrum-from-tv-bro/Jan 13th 2010 9:22PM