Subject: [NEXTEL-1] TV Exec Says Mobile Communications Companies Want Extra Spectrum Later, Not Sooner

From: [email-masked]
Date: Thu, 22 Jul 2004 10:56:34 -0400

TV Exec Says Mobile Communications Companies Want Extra Spectrum Later,
Not Sooner

Contributed by Derek Kerton on Wednesday, July 21 2004 @ 5:57pm

Speaking way out of turn, John Lawson, president of the Association of
Public Television Stations said that if TV stations are forced by the
FCC to move to digital broadcasts on a nationwide deadline, it will
reduce the value of the spectrum to the commercial wireless industry.
Wha? Umm, shouldn't we be asking the wireless industry about that? This
industry has been starved for spectrum ever since mobile phones emerged.
The US has about one half as much spectrum dedicated to mobile phone use
as most developed nations. TV broadcasters, on the other hand, are
squatting on huge swaths of spectrum using outdated analog technology,
and are dragging their heels on the migration to digital. So the message
from Techdirt to the TV guys is twofold: get me better quality digital
TV, and free-up all that spectrum you're wasting (that you got for free
years ago). Stop spending money lobbying against it, and start spending
more on doing it.

=====================================================================================

TV exec argues for market-based DTV transition
July 21 12:47:00, 2004

WASHINGTON—A hard nationwide date for the end of the transition to
digital TV will reduce the value of the spectrum to be auctioned to the
commercial wireless industry, complained John Lawson, president of the
Association of Public Television Stations, as he argued for a
market-by-market DTV transition.

Lawson believes the commercial wireless industry will benefit by a
market-to-market approach rather than a nationwide approach by being
able to test new products and services.

Lawson testified at a hearing on the DTV transition held Wednesday
morning by the House telecommunications subcommittee.
Estimates of how much revenue would be generated by spectrum auctions
may not even cover the amount of a proposed subsidy for digital set-top
boxes so that TVs currently receiving free analog broadcast signals
could receive digital signals, said Rep. Rick Boucher (D-Va.).
http://www.rcrnews.com/cgi-bin/news.pl?newsId=18922

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