Lawmakers and broadcasters to FCC: Avoid putting TV stations in duplex gap

In a letter to Federal Communications Commission Chairman Tom Wheeler on July 15, Sens Chuck Schumer (D-NY), Marco Rubio (R-FL) and Cory Booker (D-NJ) urged Chairman Wheeler to preserve the duplex gap for unlicensed and wireless mics. “A diverse coalition of broadcasters, tech companies, and consumer advocates have raised concerns that placing broadcasters in the duplex gap will complicate and inhibit live news reporting in major urban areas. Furthermore, the current proposal would deprive millions of Americans of the full benefit of next generation unlicensed technologies, including Wi Fi, enabled by making three channels available for unlicensed use on a national basis,” wrote the Senators.

Disney, CBS, FOX and NBCUniversal, Univision, along with affiliate organizations jointly wrote to the FCC asking that the agency preserve reserved spectrum for use by wireless microphones that are critical to news gathering. “We are concerned that, as part of the incentive auction re-packing, the FCC may place TV stations in the portion of the duplex gap that the FCC previously reserved for use solely by wireless microphones. Although we understand that the FCC intends to minimize the number of markets in which this could happen, we remain concerned that the implications of this decision have not been fully explored, as well as with the level of uncertainty about which and how many markets will be impacted by this potential decision."