Spectrum Shift Sprints to Finish Line

SPECTRUM SHIFT SPRINTS TO FINISH LINE
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: Glen Dickson]
After months of complicated negotiations, broadcasters and wireless carrier Sprint Nextel appear to have reached an agreement on how Sprint Nextel will reimburse them for new digital microwave gear. The pact would allow stations to vacate spectrum they have been using for electronic newsgathering (ENG), freeing it up for Sprint Nextel’s use. Over the past two months, industry trade group Association for Maximum Service Television (MSTV) and lawyers working on behalf of several station groups have crafted a rough template for a “Frequency Relocation Agreement” (FRA) that stations and Sprint Nextel can work with, says MSTV President David Donovan. The roadmap gives the industry a fighting chance of making the FCC’s September 2007 deadline for the spectrum switch. The process, known as “2 GHz Relocation,” is the result of a $4.8 billion agreement the FCC brokered with Sprint Nextel in February 2005. The deal moves some of Sprint Nextel’s operations out of the 800 megahertz (MHz) frequency band, where its signals were interfering with public-safety communications, and into part of the 2 gigahertz (GHz) band, which broadcasters use to send both live and taped feeds from their trucks to the station. Broadcasters will move off existing ENG channels and use new digital microwave gear to continue operations in a smaller swath of microwave spectrum. Sprint Nextel must spend roughly $500 million on the digital ENG gear. It will give back spectrum valued at $2.1 billion and also write the federal government a check for $2.2 billion.
http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA6329698?display=Technology