Kaplan: FCC Needs to Get More Comment on Band Plan

At a Media Institute Lunch in Washington, the National Association of Broadcasters’ Rick Kaplan said that the Federal Communications Commission's incentive auction will likely fail if the FCC tries to stick to a 2014 deadline or a variable band plan for post-auction station repacking.

By failure he means that either not enough broadcasters are willing to give up spectrum to create a nationwide wireless spectrum band plan or the result is widespread interference. Kaplan, former chief of the FCC's wireless bureau, reiterated NAB's criticism of the FCC's proposed band plan, which intersperses broadcasters and wireless operators, and what he suggested was a rushed auction timetable.