CEA, CTIA Ask FCC to Make Inquiry Into Reallocating Broadcast Spectrum

The Consumer Electronics Association and CTIA: The Wireless Association have asked the Federal Communications Commission to make an inquiry into reallocating broadcast spectrum usage part of the national broadband plan, saying it is about to run into a Communications Act deadline to do just that. In a letter to the FCC commissioners, the two groups say there is a looming spectrum crisis and point out that the Communications Act gave the FCC 10 years after it first handed out DTV licenses to make "an assessment of alternative uses, including public safety use, of the frequencies used for such broadcasts; and the extent to which the commission has been or will be able to reduce the amount of spectrum assigned to licensees." They say the initial DTV licenses were issued in February 1999, and that, as far as they know, the FCC has never undertaken that assessment. [For those of you scoring at home, see Sec 336 of the Communications Act of 1934.]