Vermont Legislators Say Protecting Broadcast Signals is Critical

A trio of Vermont legislators has asked the State Department to make sure the government negotiates a new spectrum agreement with Canada before they do any repacking in the second digital transition that would likely result from incentive spectrum auctions.

The Federal Communications Commission will have to move some channels, and others will likely have to share channels to free up contiguous blocks of spectrum for auction to wireless companies. In a letter to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Senators Patrick Leahy (D-VT) and Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and Rep. Peter Welch (D-VT) said that stations there had already been forced to cut power due to the DTV transition in 2009 and that any further repacking could have "devastating" impact without coordination with Canada.