NAB, Wireless Agree on Band Plan 'Core' Principles

Verizon, AT&T, the National Association of Broadcasters and others sent a letter to the Federal Communications Commission making some key recommendations and offering a new band plan idea for reorganizing the broadcast/broadband band after the FCC's reverse incentive auctions to reclaim broadcast spectrum for wireless.

The band plan is only one part of the incentive auction process, but an important one for broadcasters who will have to share their former spectrum digs with wireless. According to a copy of the letter, broadcasters and wireless companies have come to consensus on a "core set of band plan principles" that they want the FCC to adopt.

Those include:

1. Adopt a contiguous "down from TV 51" approach with uplink at the top;
2. Maximize the amount of paired spectrum above TV 37 (rely on supplemental downlink configurations where spectrum is cleared but pairing options are not viable);
3. Rely upon 5 MHz spectrum blocks as building blocks for the band plan;
4. Incorporate a "duplex gap" or spacing between uplink (mobile transmit) and downlink (base transmit) of a minimum of 10 MHz, but no larger than technically necessary;
5. Avoid broadcast television stations in the duplex gap;
6. Preclude any operations in the duplex gap or guard bands that would result in harmful interference to adjacent licensed services;
7. Provide guard bands that are, consistent with the statute, "no larger than is technically reasonable" to guard against harmful interference between adjacent operations;
8. Provide a guard band between a high power broadcaster and mobile downlink that is sufficient to protect the wireless service from interference, which will likely be larger than the 6 MHz proposed by the FCC;
9. Permit existing operations in TV 37 to remain;
10. Facilitate international harmonization, prioritizing harmonization across North America and move forward expeditiously to coordinate with Canada and Mexico for new broadcast assignments."