Digital TV - Maybe Not Next Month?

I've been writing about the transition from analog to digital television, referred to as DTV, for the last year and a half or so. Here's a refresher.....

Way back in 2005 Congress decided to move to all digital over-air broadcasting to free up spectrum for public safety and make some money by auctioning off the space. Auctions for the spectrum held last year brought in $19.6 billion to the federal government. Congress allocated a little less than $2 billion to provide $40 coupons for digital to analog converter boxes and get the word out to consumers about the change - if you have an analog television and watch over the air your television will not work after February 17 without a converter box.

So far so good - better public safety, some money for the federal government, higher quality digital television and a coupon program for the converter boxes, all with good up front planning.......

Fast forward to last week - on Monday the organization handling the conversion, the National Telecommunications and Information Administration said the program had no money left and a waiting list of 1.1 million converter box coupon requests. They also said approximately 13 million of the 41 million coupons mailed out to consumers had expired after 90 days.

Want more? Here's a quote from a piece in the Los Angeles Times:

In a letter Thursday to key members of Congress, John Podesta, co-chairman of Obama's presidential transition team, said the Feb. 17 conversion should be delayed, though he did not specify for how long. But with the incoming administration facing economic and foreign policy crises, it does not want to add a major problem with TV viewing in its first weeks in office.

Podesta cited troubles with the converter box coupon program as well as inadequate efforts to educate the public about the switch, and the need to help elderly, poor and rural Americans prepare for it.

"With coupons unavailable, support and education insufficient and the most vulnerable Americans exposed, I urge you to consider a change to the legislatively mandated analog cutoff date," Podesta wrote.

Podesta said the waiting list for coupons could climb to more than 5 million by early February.

Also..... Obama's economic stimulus package is rumored to include some money for the analog to digital transition.....

Will the February 17 deadline end up being extended? Right now it sure looks like it.

Digital TV: Goodbye Analog Snow, Hello Digital Losses

We don't have long to go until over-the-air analog television bites the dust, replaced with digital signaling on February 18. Watching televison the "old-fashioned" way (without cable) brings back fond memories of the aerial antenna on top of my parents house. I remember my Dad climbing up on the roof to move the antenna so we could watch Boston Bruins hockey games more clearly. It only took a few trips to the roof before we had one of those fancy motorized antennas with a controller on top of the set - no more roof climbing to redirect an antenna with one of those - just a twist of a dial......

Most of us have come a long way since those antenna days but there are still many in this country who watch television over-the-air. Realizing this, Congress did get out in front of the digital conversion a year and a half or so ago and starting offering $40 coupons (see www.dtv2009.gov ) consumers can use towards the purchase of a digital set top conversion box. Basically these boxes take the digital signal from the air and convert it to an analog signal that an analog TV can use.

Moving to digital has a lot of advantages including a 3:1 channel ratio - you'll have three digital channels for the equivalent of one single analog channel. It also frees up spectrum for new wireless communications services.

There are also some disadvantages though - most analog sets have 4:3 ratio screens while most digital programming is broadcast in wide screen format. This means analog set owners are going to see letterboxing - black bands at the top and bottom of screens. I think the biggest complaint though will be from those who live in areas where broadcast signals are weak.

Let's take a close look. Back when we were watching those Bruins hockey games we expected a snowy picture - if you're not sure what a snowy picture is - here's an 18 second analog transmission video I just shot:



A fuzzy/snowy picture with good audio - it's watchable and it is also listenable. Analog signals fade gracefully (as someone much smarter that me once said whose name I cannot remember). As signals get weaker the picture snows up but is still watchable. The audio is commonly good with weak audio signals - in fact you typically lose the picture before you lose the audio.

Digital transmissions are another story. Weaker signals will cause the picture to randomly lose pixels along with random pieces of audio. Here's a 20 second digital transmission video I just shot showing pixel and audio loss.



Pixel lose is scattered and occurs throughout the video and, if you missed it, audio is momentarily lost at around 5 seconds. Annoying and just about impossible for me to watch for more than a few minutes..... I'm changing the channel!

Over the air digital television is being pitched by many as a go-no-go service, with people saying you will either get the channel or you won't. From what I've seen this is not the case - there is an in between that is not very pleasant - those digital signals do not fade gracefully!

Dissenting Statement of FCC Commissioner Michael J. Copps

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is directed by five Commissioners appointed by the President and confirmed by the Senate for 5-year terms, except when filling an unexpired term. The President designates one of the Commissioners to serve as Chairperson. Only three Commissioners may be members of the same political party and all are appointed by the President. None of them can have a financial interest in any Commission-related business.^₁ Current Commissioners are:

Jonathan Adelstein (D-SD)
Michael Copps (D-WI)
Kevin Martin (R-NC) - Chairman
Robert M. McDowell (R-VA)
Deborah Taylor Tate (R-TN)

Commissioners make decisions and have to have thick skin - any time a decision is made there is going to be positive and negative feedback. Often the Commissioners stick together and defend each other but sometimes there are dissenting statements made when there is strong disagreement. In response to the June 12, 2008 FCC Fifth Section 706 Report I wrote about a couple of days ago that examines the availability of advanced telecommunications capability to all Americans, Commissioner Michael J. Copps let lose with a whopper of a dissenting statement - here it is as posted on the FCC website:

It’s no secret to most people here that I have not been leading the cheers for previous editions of our Section 706 reports. Based on a paucity of data –mostly primitive and generally-unhelpful –these reports claim progress that simply did not reflect reality. The data lacked a plausible definition of broadband, employed stunningly meaningless zip code measurements concerning its geographic distribution, ignored the prices people paid for broadband completely, and for years failed to look at what other countries were doing to get broadband deployed to their people. As I noted the last time we issued a section 706 Report, way back in September 2004:

“America’s competitors around the world are implementing comprehensive broadband plans. Countries like Japan, Korea, and Canada have left us far behind. This is unacceptable. Broadband is our central infrastructure challenge. High-capacity networks are to the Twenty-first century what roads, canals and railroads were to the Nineteenth and highways and basic telecommunications were to the Twentieth. Our economy and our future will be driven by how quickly and completely we deploy broadband.

That is why Congress charged the FCC with promoting broadband deployment for all Americans—whether they live in rural areas, inner cities or tribal lands; whether they are affluent or of limited income; whether they live with or without disabilities. Recently, we heard an announcement from the very top of our government that our goal is universal broadband access by 2007. But we are not making acceptable progress toward that goal. Yes, there are good stories in these glossy pages. Schools and libraries enjoy broadband access like never before. New technologies offer new promise. Strides are being made in some rural communities. Companies are working hard.

Still, one glaring fact stands out: the United States is ranked eleventh in the world in broadband penetration! [Note: we’ve fallen to 15th in the interim.] This Report somehow finds that this is acceptable, and that our efforts are resulting in timely deployment.”

I could continue with the rest of my 2004 statement and it would sound as eerily applicable today as these first few paragraphs do. We can write reports that conclude that Americans are receiving broadband in a reasonable and timely fashion. But the facts are always there, glaring and staring us in the face, showing us where we really stand.

I've always been a proponent of free markets and smaller government but, in this case I have to agree with Copp, we're just fooling ourselves. I don't believe we are going to fix this critical problem without strong national policy.

Finally..... FCC Ups Broadband Definition..... Is It Enough?

On June 12, 2008, the FCC released it's Fifth Section 706 Report, examining the availability of advanced telecommunications capability to all Americans, as required by section 706 of the Telecommunications Act of 1996. Section 706 directs the Commission to encourage the deployment of advanced telecommunications capability to all Americans by using measures that “promote competition in the local telecommunications market.” Further, it requires the Commission to conduct a regular inquiry to determine“ whether advanced telecommunications capability is being deployed to all Americans in a reasonable and timely fashion.The fourth report was published in 2004 so this report was due.

I've written here frequently about the definition of broadband in our country - here's a quote from the FCC website:

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) generally defines broadband service as data transmission speeds exceeding 200 kilobits per second (Kbps), or 200,000 bits per second, in at least one direction: downstream (from the Internet to your computer) or upstream (from your computer to the Internet)."

According to the FCC report, the Commission will start measuring broadband in the U.S. using the following tiers of service:

First Generation data: 200 Kbps up to 768 Kbps

Basic Broadband : 768 Kbps to 1.5 Mbps
1.5 Mbps to 3.0 Mbps
3.0 Mbps to 6.0 Mbps
6.0 Mbps and above

So, according to the FCC, broadband in the United States is now defined as 768 Kbps or greater.

I've also written in the past about how broadband is mapped in the United States:

Currently, the FCC counts a single broadband subscriber in a 5-digit zip code as indicating the entire zip code has broadband availability, even if the sole subscriber is a business and not a residential consumer. This can lead to highly inaccurate and overly generous notions of actual broadband availability and use, particularly in rural areas where zip codes are quite large."

According to the new Section 706 report, the FCC will obtain and map additional information about broadband service availability to better direct resources toward unserved and underserved areas. Armed with this additional broadband data, the Commission will be better able to assess and promote the deployment of broadband across the nation.

To answer my post title question "Is it Enough?" - in my opinion no way. I'll pick the 76 page FCC report apart, focusing on the highlights, in my next few blog entries.

FCC Expands and Improves Broadband Data Collection

Last week, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) adopted an order that will increase the precision and quality of broadband subscribership data collected every six months from broadband services providers.

I've written in the past about how the Federal Communications Commission currently defines broadband in the United States:

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) generally defines broadband service as data transmission speeds exceeding 200 kilobits per second (Kbps), or 200,000 bits per second, in at least one direction: downstream (from the Internet to your computer) or upstream (from your computer to the Internet)."

I've also written in the past about how the FCC currently collects broadband data. Here's a piece from a press release by House Subcommittee on Telecommunications and the Internet Chairman Ed Markey describing the current FCC broadband data collection methods:

"...the fact that current data collection methods used by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) are inadequate and highly flawed. Currently, the FCC counts a single broadband subscriber in a 5-digit zip code as indicating the entire zip code has broadband availability, even if the sole subscriber is a business and not a residential consumer. This can lead to highly inaccurate and overly generous notions of actual broadband availability and use, particularly in rural areas where zip codes are quite large."

Here's a brief outline of the new order summarized from an excellent post at CNET's News.com:

200Kbps speeds are no longer considered "broadband"

768Kbps, typical entry-level speed offered by major DSL providers, will be considered the low end of "basic broadband," a range that extends to under 1.5Mbps.

Broadband service speeds will have to be reported both for uploads and downloads

Previously the FCC had six big categories of broadband speeds, and they effectively only tracked download speeds. Now the agency says it will require reporting on upload speeds.

Upload and download speeds will have to be reported in a more specific way

At the moment, the broadband speeds most commonly offered by cable and telephone companies are lumped into two major categories: those between 200Kbps and 2.5Mbps, and those between 2.5Mbps and 10Mbps. The FCC's new rules would require them to be broken down further, in an attempt to address charges that the current buckets have the potential to overstate the number of high-end subscriptions and understate the number of low-end subscriptions. Those new tiers will be: 1) 200Kbps to 768Kbps ("first generation data"); 2) 768Kbps to 1.5Mbps ("basic broadband"); 3) 1.5Mbps to 3Mbps; 4) 3Mbps to 6Mbps; and 5) 6Mbps and above.

Internet Service Providers (ISPs) will be required to report numbers of subscribers, and at the census-block level

The ISP's will have to report the number of subscribers in each census tract they serve, broken down by speed tier. The FCC decided to use census tracts because researchers may be able to use other demographic statistics collected by the U.S. Census, such as age and income level, to gain insight about what drives broadband penetration rates.

In addition, ISPs will not have to report the prices they charge at this time but like will have to in the future. You can read the March 19 FCC press release titled "FCC EXPANDS, IMPROVES BROADBAND DATA COLLECTION" here.

This is a significant and necessary decision that we all should be excited about.

FCC 700 MHz Auction is Over..... Sort Of

Yesterday afternoon, FCC Auction 73 bidding round 261 ended and, after 38 days and $19.592 billion in bids (almost double the $10 billion the FCC had hoped for), the FCC closed out the auction.

Eight of the C-Block regional licenses had a reserve price of $4.6 billion that, when passed early in the auction (round 17), triggered an open access provision in the auction. This meant bidders could bid on individual C-Block licenses and, it appears the 12 C-Block licenses may be split up among bidders. Most experts are predicting Verizon and/or AT&T will take most of the C-Block while a smaller group still believes Google will be in the mix.

The C-Block provision requires the C-Block winner(s) to give access to any device compatible with the network’s chosen technology. This open access provision was pushed hard by Google and, whether Google is a winning bidder or not, Google will have access to this spectrum.

There were 1,099 licenses auctioned and only eight did not receive any bids:

A-Block:

Lubbock, Texas
Wheeling, W.Va.

B-Block:

Bismarck, N.D.
Fargo, N.D.
Grand Forks, N.D.
Lee, Va.
Yancey, N.C.
Clarendon, S.C.

These licenses will need to be re-auctioned by the FCC. I'm guessing they were over priced, the FCC will end up dropping the re-auction minimum bid and they will end up going quickly.

The Public Safety D-Block did not meet the minimum bid and the FCC will have to decide what to do. It looks like the FCC could go one of two directions for the re-auction - drop the price or change the requirements. House Telecom Subcommittee Chairman Edward Markey (D-Mass.) is quoted on the D-Block in a post by RCRWirelessNews:

“I believe that any new auction for the ‘D-block’ should be consistent with an overarching policy goal of advancing public-safety objectives and ultimately achieving a state-of-the-art, broadband infrastructure for first responders. In developing a plan for a re-auction of the ‘D-block,’ the FCC should also take into account the auction results to gauge the level of new competition achieved. Policymakers should also analyze whether a need for a high reserve price continues to exist. Moreover, I believe we must fully review the nature and authority of the public safety spectrum trust and whether this model should be retained or modified, the length of the license term, the build-out requirements and schedule of benchmarks for such build-out, the opportunities for ensuring further openness in wireless markets, the penalties associated with failure to fulfill license conditions, and other issues.”

From the start, the public safety D-Block auction was seen as one of the biggest auction challenges...... I've expressed my opinion on the D-Block in the past........ the FCC still has some major work ahead before they can close this one out.

700 MHz Spectrum Auction Update - Could Next Week be the Last Week?

Bidding round 102 came to a close yesterday afternoon with $19,524,595,900 (last week the auction finished at $19,450,389,100 - it is slowing) in total provisionally winning bids. Things have slowed considerably with only 40 new bids placed in round 102. For reference, on Thursday, each round averaged about 50 new bids.

Most active in the final round yesterday were E-Block licenses in the Bismark, North Dakota and Rapid City, South Dakota areas along with B-Block licenses in the southeastern United States.

The public safety D-Block still has not had a bid since the first round and will end up being re-auctioned by the FCC.

This may end up being the last week (an FCC decision but I'm thinking so). After the auction is closed the FCC will announce the winners.

FCC 700 MHz Auction Update - Feb. 16

I'm feeling better after a week with the flu - all I can say is next year I'm getting a flu shot!

I've been watching the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) 700 MHz auction fairly closely since it started on January 24. The 81st round finished yesterday (Friday - Feb. 15, 2008) afternoon - here's an update from the FCC auction site:

• Bidding Rounds to Date: 81
  
• Bid totals to Date: $19,450,389,100
• Activity is slowing with selected licenses in the B-block and E-block sections receiving most of the new bids.
  
• There has not been a C-Block bid on the U.S. 50 state package since it passed the FCC reserve price on Thursday, January 31. The current bid is still $4,713,823,000.
• The public safety D-Block has not had a bid in 80 consecutive rounds and is stuck at $472,042,000, still well below the $1.3 Billion reserve price set by the FCC.

Some personal observations and opinions:

• The FCC will likely be ending the auction soon. Before they do they'll probably increase the frequency of the bidding rounds to move things along - they've done this with prior spectrum auctions.
  
• Will C-Block bidding heat up in the final rounds? Most experts are saying no. I'm wondering if there may be a deep pocket bidder patiently waiting.
• The public safety D-Block is the FCC's biggest problem right now - the FCC will have to re-auction and the public-private partnership model I wrote about last month is looking like an interesting possibility.
  

Bidding is closed for the holiday weekend with round 82 starting Tuesday (Feb. 19, 2008) morning.

FCC 700 MHz Auction Update - Feb. 2

The 26th round finished yesterday (Friday - Feb. 1, 2008) afternoon - here's a quick update from the FCC auction site:

• Bidding Rounds to Date: 26
  
• Bid totals to Date: $18,554,080,600
  
• The A and B-Blocks have been getting most of the attention lately:
• The Los Angeles A-Block leads the A's with a current bid of $580,268,000.
• The Chicago B-Block leads the B's with a current bid of $892,400,000.
• There has not been a C-Block 50 state package bid since it passed the FCC reserve price on Thursday. The current C-Block 50 state package bid is $4,713,823,000.
• The public safety D-Block has not had a bid in 25 consecutive rounds and is stuck at $472,042,000, well below the $1.3 Billion reserve price set by the FCC.
• E-Block bidding has been slow with the New York City E-Block leading at $178,897,000.
• 23 licenses had not registered a bid at the end of round 26, 19 of these 23 are in the E-Block.
  

Some personal observations and opinions:

• It looks (to me anyways) like the C-Block bidding may be done. Since the FCC reserve price of $4.6 Billion has been passed, the open-access that Google wanted is assured. We won't know who the winning bidders are until after the auctions have closed but I'd say Google is the current leading C-Block bidder.
  
• Right now it does not look like the D-Block will meet the $1.3 Billion reserve price and will end up being re-auctioned by the FCC.
• A number of E-Block licenses will not meet minimum bids and will also be re-auctioned.
  
• The FCC had set an original goal of $10 Billion for the auction. With current bids totaling over $18 Billion, it appears the auction (from the FCC's perspective) will be a success.
  

Bidding is closed for the weekend with round 27 starting Monday (Feb. 4, 2008) morning.

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Read Show Notes and listen to Mike Q and my latest Podcast titled The FCC 700 MHz Spectrum Auction linked here.
Listen directly in your web browser by clicking here.
Podcasts also free on iTunes.
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Super Thursday: Let the Spectrum Auctions Begin!

I've written frequently in the last couple of weeks here about the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) 700 MHz band auction that officially kicked off today. USA Today has published an interesting article titled Google could cause a stir in FCC's airwaves auction and, in the article, some of the leading bidders and their likely strategies are listed.

Let's take a quick look at some of the major bidders (in alphabetical order) and their expected bidding strategies. For additional detail be sure to read the USA Today Article.

AT&T

AT&T already has more spectrum than any other carrier so bidding on the 700 MHz band will be used for further build-out. Many experts are speculating AT&T will focus primarily on the D-Block public-safety spectrum.

Cablevision, Cox, Advance/Newhouse, Bresnan

These cable companies are interested in spectrum to provide wireless services and compete with the large providers. Most experts believe they will be bidding on A-Block regional licenses in their service areas.

EchoStar

EchoStar is a satellite TV provider that is interested in using spectrum to provide wireless broadband access to its customers. Most experts do not feel EchoStar has the money to compete with companies like Google, At&T and Verizon in the auction.

Google

Google is the heavyweight here. The company wants to further expand into the cellular smartphone market and has the money to compete with the big providers. The company is expected to bid the $4.6 Billion minimum for the C-Block spectrum in the U.S.

Leap, MetroPCS,, Alltel

Like the cable companies (Cablevision, Cox, etc), these regional wireless companies will likely be bidding on A-Block regional licenses in their service areas. Experts also are speculating Alltel will bid on the public safety D-Block spectrum.

Paul Allen and Vulcan

Paul Allen's (co-founder of Microsoft with Bill Gates) investment company, Vulcan, already owns spectrum in Washington and Oregon.Vulcan may be bidding on some of the C-Block regional licenses or smaller A or B-Block regional licenses.

Qualcomm

The California based wireless manufacturer is looking for spectrum for its MediaFlo smartphone video service. Qualcomm will likely be bidding on E-Block regional licenses.

Verizon

Verizon will likely be bidding big on U.S. C-Block spectrum with plans to open their network to any (hardware and software) devices.

If you want to stay updated - the FCC Auction 73: 700 MHz Auction Summary page lists, among other things, results of the auction after each round.

The auction will likely last a couple of months so we won't know the winners until then. We should start to see products from the winning bidders that use the spectrum sometime next year.

FCC 700 MHz Spectrum Auction Areas

This week I've written about the upcoming Federal Communications Commission (FCC) 700 MHz auction and how the available spectrum is the result of a Congressional law passed in 2005. The law requires U.S. TV stations to convert to all digital broadcasts and give up analog spectrum in the 700 MHz frequency band. Today let's look at how the FCC is using area definitions to determine the spectrum blocks that will be auctioned.

With the definition of Cellular Market Areas in 1982, the FCC started assigning licensing areas based radio licenses, . According to the FCC, a common trait among most of these licensing areas is that every area is an aggregation of county-equivalent entities as defined in Federal Information Processing Standards Publication 6-4, 1990 August 31 . These data resource standards have bee put in place to avoid unnecessary duplication and incompatibilities in the collection, processing, and dissemination of data, so they make a lot of sense.

Each spectrum block in the 700 MHz auction, except for the national public safely D-Block, has been assigned an area designation by the FCC. Let's describe those areas included in the 700 MHz auction using FCC definitions.

Economic Areas

Both the A-Block (12 MHz) and the E-Block (6 MHz) are being auctioned using the Economic Area (BEA) service areas established by the Regional Economic Analysis Division, Bureau of Economic Analysis, U.S. Department of Commerce. Included are Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands, American Samoa and the Gulf of Mexico. There are a total of 176 Economic Area service areas designated by the FCC.

BEA services include General Wireless Communications Service (GWCS), Specialized Mobile Radio (SMR) and Location and Monitoring Service (LMS).

Cellular Market Areas

The B-Block (12 MHz) is being auctioned using the Cellular Market Area (CMA) service areas. The 734 CMAs are broken down as follows:

Areas 1-305: Created from the Metropolitan Statistical Areas (MSAs) defined by the Office of Management and Budget (1-305)

Area 306: The Gulf of Mexico
Areas 307-734: Rural Service Areas (RSAs) established by the FCC which do not cross state borders including parts of Puerto Rico not already in an MSA (723-729), U.S. Virgin Islands
(730-731), Guam (732), American Samoa (733), and Northern Mariana Islands (734).

CMA Services include Cellular Radiotelephone Service and Interactive Video and Data Service (IVDS)

Regional Economic Areas

The C-Block (22 MHz) is being auctioned using the 12 Regional Economic Areas (REAs) created by the FCC. The REAs are an aggregation of the 52 Major Economic Areas (MEAs) defined by the FCC.

REA Services include Wireless Communications Service (WCS)

All FCC areas, along with names, county lists, maps and map info data can be found on the Commission's website linked here.

FCC Spectrum Auction Bidding Procedure Summary

On Monday, the Federal Communications Commission released a public notice titled Auction of 700 MHZ Band Licenses. This document describes the bidding procedure for the 214 companies that have qualified for the auction, which will be handled by the Wireless Telecommunications Bureau (WTB). The WTB is one of seven FCC Bureaus and is responsible for all FCC domestic wireless telecommunications programs and policies.

Here's a summary outline of the procedure pulled from the 12 page FCC document:

1. Bidding in Auction 73 is scheduled to begin on Thursday, January 24, 2008.

2. Each qualified bidder will receive prior to January 24:
   
   • At least two RSA SecurID tokens
   • An Integrated Spectrum Auction System (ISAS) Bidder’s Guide
   • A FCC Auction Bidder Line phone number

3. The FCC will conduct the auction over the Internet and telephonic bidding will also be available. In either case, each authorized bidder must have his or her own SecurID token.

4. There will be a minimum opening bid amount for each license and package and the minimum opening bid amount is subject to reduction at the discretion of the WTB. The WTB will not entertain requests to lower minimum opening bid amounts.
   

5. The WTB has established the following block-specific aggregate reserve prices for Auction 73:
   

   • Block A, $1.807380 billion;
     
   • Block B, $1.374426 billion;
     
   • Block C, $4.637854 billion;
     
   • Block D, $1.330000 billion;
     
   • Block E, $0.903690 billion.

6. If, at the close of bidding in Auction 73, the aggregate reserve price for the A, B, C and/or E Blocks has not been met, the WTB will issue an announcement that bidding in Auction 73 is closed and set a date for commencement of Auction 76.

7. Round results will be available approximately 10 minutes after the close of each round. and two types of reports will be available to bidders: (a) publicly available information, and (b) bidder-specific information available only to that bidder when logged in to the FCC Auction System.

8. Each qualified bidder will have a default watchlist that contains every license and packages of licenses selected on the bidder’s short-form application. Qualified bidders may also create custom watchlists.

9. On Tuesday, January 22, the WTB will conduct a mock auction, which will allow qualified bidders to familiarize themselves with the FCC Auction System. Only qualified bidders will be permitted to participate in the mock auction.
   

10. Once winning bids are announced (either after Auction 73 or Auction 76) and winning bidders are announced, winning bidders will have 10 business days to file a long-form application (FCC Form 601) and make down payments for all of the licenses it won.
    

These are only highlights - please refer to the PDF document for details.

It will likely be early March before spectrum winners are announced by the FCC.

Internet Traffic Control Conflict

Yesterday, at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Federal Communications Commission Chairman Kevin Martin announced the Commission will investigate complaints that Comcast interferes with file sharing application Internet traffic. These BitTorrent based peer-to-peer file sharing applications are commonly used to exchange large video and audio files on the Internet. Here's a quote from an Associated Press release:

A coalition of consumer groups and legal scholars asked the agency in November to stop Comcast from discriminating against certain types of data. Two groups also asked the FCC to fine the nation's No. 2 Internet provider $195,000 for every affected subscriber.

The complaint filed by Free Press is linked here.

The Associated Press release continues:

"Sure, we're going to investigate and make sure that no consumer is going to be blocked," Martin told an audience at the International Consumer Electronics Show.

In an investigation last year, The Associated Press found that Comcast in some cases hindered file sharing by subscribers who used BitTorrent, a popular file-sharing program. The findings, first reported Oct. 19, confirmed claims by users who also noticed interference with other file-sharing applications.

The key word in Martin's statement is "blocked". Here's a piece from a DSL Reports release:

Martin's choice of words is telling. If you're a network neutrality supporter eager to see someone clamp down on application throttling, you shouldn't hold your breath waiting for the FCC. The policy statement (pdf) that guides the FCC's hand in matters of network neutrality is not law, and is intentionally vague enough to allow providers to get away with anything short of an outright traffic blockade.

The final footnote in on the FCC policy statement is most interesting:

Accordingly, we are not adopting rules in this policy statement. The principles we adopt are subject to reasonable network management.

I can see both sides of this argument: On one hand it is extremely frustrating to see my broadband data connection significantly slow in the evenings - I've often wondered how much of the slowdown is due to BitTorrent based file exchange along with streaming video, audio, etc. On the other hand BitTorrent is being used by companies that sell video and game content for distribution - if I've purchased a video online I don't want my ISP throttling the speed of my downloads.

I'm hoping the FCC can step in, mediate the disagreement and set a policy that works for all - BitTorrent based file exchange is not going away.

FCC Awards First Piece of 700 MHz Spectrum

On November 19, theFederal Communications Commission awarded a 10 MHz piece of the 700 MHz spectrum to the Public Safety Spectrum Trust (PSST). PSST is a non-profit that was setup, according to PRNewswire, by the "national public safety leadership to oversee the creation of a nationwide wireless broadband network for public safety."

More 700 MHz spectrum will go up for auction starting on January 28th next year. Here's more from PRNewswire:

According to the FCC's Second Report & Order on the 700 MHz band, 10 MHz of the spectrum now held by the PSST will be combined with an adjacent 10 MHz of spectrum to be licensed to the commercial winner of the upper 700 MHz D Block auction. The 700 MHz auction is set to begin on January 24, 2008. Together, these spectrum assets will be used to create one shared nationwide wireless broadband network, which will provide commercial service for consumers, while maintaining a nationwide network for public safety, including priority access during emergencies.

GovernmentExecutive.com also had some good information on how this public safety piece of the spectrum will be used:

The new broadband network will herald a new era for public safety communications, supporting applications not readily available to first responders today, such as live, streaming video from the scene of a fire, said Alan Caldwell, senior adviser for government relations for the International Association of Fire Chiefs. He added that the broadband network also will allow first responders in a remote command post to access building drawings and diagrams and augment radio channels with VoIP phone calls over the network.

The network also could support telemetry channels, which monitor firefighters' vital signs and allow ambulance crews to transmit ultrasound images to clinicians at a remote hospital, where doctors can use the technology to determine whether a patient should be taken to a trauma center. "This could make mobile tele-medicine a reality," said Kevin McGinnis, PSST vice chairman and a program adviser to the National Association of State Emergency Medical Services Officials, which is part of the consortium of public safety organizations that make up the PSST.

It will be interesting to see who wins auctioned spectrum next year. We'll know more about who will be bidding in a couple of weeks - the FCC has set an application filing deadline of 6 PM on December 3, 2007.

You can download the PSST License (FCC-07-199) pdf here and watch FCC auction news here.

Analog Televisions Still For Sale

I've written in the past about the FCC digital television mandate set for February 18, 2009. As part of the mandate, the FCC set some preliminary rules that appear to have been broken by some major retailers.

According to the FCC rules - as of May 25, 2007 - retailers that were selling televisions without built in digital tuners had to be clearly marked as such either on the set itself or in close proximity. The warning is required to say that the television will not be able to receive over-air broadcasts after February 18, 2009 unless a separate set top digital-to-analog converter box is used. Warnings were given out to several retailers back in June and this past week several fines were issued to some very larger U.S. retailers.

At this time I would not buy a TV without a built in digital tuner.

Analog to Digital Mandated Conversion

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is meeting on September 18 to discuss the analog to digital conversion scheduled to go into effect on February 18, 2009. There has been a lot of discussion, disagreement and concern by the FCC, broadcasters, cable operators and industry organizations over this mandated conversion.

Current television signals are delivered in both analog and digital formats but on February 18, 2009, broadcasters will be required by the FCC to drop the analog signals. As a result, people that have analog TV sets and receive signals over the air will have to purchase a digital to analog converter box to continue to use their analog televisions. Cable providers will have the option of converting feeds from digital to analog at cable headends or delivering digital signals to analog TV customers who would use a set top box to convert the digital signals to analog.

The National Cable and Telecommunications Association (NCTA) launched a huge $200 million ad campaign last week basically telling customers they will not be charged for converter boxes or be forced into purchasing more expensive digital service. The NCTA is claiming the FCC is violating industry and consumer civil rights by mandating the change. The NCTA prefers the transition be managed over time by the cable operators and not have an FCC mandated conversion date. The NCTA ads have not been posted on YouTube yet but you can watch them here.

We'll see what happens at the FCC next week.

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Read Show Notes and listen to Mike Q and my latest Podcast titled iPod touch Overview and Impressions linked here.
Podcasts also free on iTunes.
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FCC Rejects 2155-2175MHz WiFi Proposal

On Friday the Federal Communications Commission released an order dismissing a couple of WiFi applications and petitions from M2Z Networks and NetFreeUS. M2Z's FCC petition is linked here, NetFreeUS's is linked here and the FCC rejection is linked here. The companies had proposed building a network using the 2155-2175MHz frequency band.

M2Z's petition seemed to get more press - let's take a look at it. M2Z proposed ad-supported "free" wireless Internet access at 384 Kbps downstream and 128 Kbps upstream.

[Most consumer Internet services provide more downstream (coming to you) bandwidth because the majority of traffic is coming downstream to you. Think about the way you "surf" - a short address typed in browser menu bar goes upstream to server and the then server sends an entire page of website content to you downstream. For this reason these kinds of services are referred to as "asymmetrical" - in fact the "A" in ADSL is short for "Asymmetrical".]

If you wanted more bandwidth or did not want the filters, M2Z proposed an upgrade to a 3 Mbps premium service for an unspecified cost. In return for use of the spectrum, both companies had proposed giving a percentage of revenue to the U.S. government. These petitions had been sitting at the FCC for a while with M2Z's at the FCC for over 16 months.

The FCC rejection document is interesting - it is good to see the level of attention and detail in it from the FCC. According to News.com:

The FCC said it wasn't persuaded that allowing a single company to control the slice of spectrum without first seeking broader comment on how the band should be used would serve the public interest. The regulators concluded that it's preferable to conduct their usual rule-making process to set parameters for the spectrum's use--a move that would begin "shortly," they said.

"Many have suggested that we should auction this spectrum, while still others suggest that due to the high demand for this spectrum we should consider unlicensed use of the band," FCC Chairman Kevin Martin said in a statement. "Each of these proposals has merit, and consideration of either would be inappropriately foreclosed by granting forbearance in this instance."

Regulators commented that the proposed bandwidth was relatively "slow" [I agree - a lot has changed in 16 months and.... it continues to rapidly change] and a consolidation of public interest groups, calling themselves the Media Access Project, had come out very strongly against the M2Z and NetFreeUS petitions. The group especially had First Amendment concerns with regards to content filtering [I agree with this concern also]. Here's a link to Media Access Project's position PDF.

It is unclear what the FCC will do with this spectrum - it could be auctioned or left unlicensed. The rejected companies do have the option of appealing the FCC decision.

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Read Show Notes and listen to Mike Q and my latest Podcast titled Enterprise 2.0 linked here.
Podcasts also free on iTunes.
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