Broadcast, Wireless Industries Keep Powder Dry at House Spectrum Hearing

The heads of the broadcast and wireless industries left the tough rhetoric at home Tuesday as they each made their cases for the future of spectrum in an increasingly broadband-centric world. National Association of Broadcasters President Gordon Smith and CTIA President Steve Largent avoided turning the proceedings in a referendum on the relative value of broadcasting versus broadband. Smith said that either/or was a false choice, and that would need to be part of the communications future. Largent's focus was on getting more spectrum, "wherever it comes from." All the witnesses were in agreement on the two baseline bills that were the subject of the hearing in the House Energy & Commerce Committee Communications Subcommittee. Those bills would require the FCC and National Telecommunications & Information Administration to inventory spectrum use with an eye toward freeing up more for wireless broadband and then to find a more efficient way to re-auction and reallocate that spectrum. The hearing touched on a number of points, including alternatives to reclaiming spectrum from broadcasters that included dynamic spectrum sharing, compression and modulation improvements that would make more efficient use of the current spectrum holdings. But Dale Hatfield, co-chair of the Commerce Spectrum Management Advisory Committee, said that while such spectrum efficiency measures like compression and modulation would help, they would likely not be enough, and that the most promising avenues were reclaiming spectrum and sharing.

Former radio station owner Rep Greg Walden (R-OR) called a paper by top Federal Communications Commission spectrum adviser Stuart Benjamin that recommends regulating television broadcasting out of business "a real abomination." He said, "I hope this committee will look at some of the things he's had to say." Rep Walden owned Columbia Gorge Broadcasting, which operated five radio stations, but sold them in 2007 to avoid any conflict of interest that might arise with his congressional duties.

Rep Steve Buyer took aim at the Comcast/NBC deal saying the committee needs to see over the horizon at "the impact that this type of merger is going to have on a multimedia platform and advertising model." NAB's Smith said some of his members had concerns as well.