Ex Parte Letter in Response to NAB et al.

Via ElectronicMail

Marlene H. Dortch
Office of the Secretary
Federal Communications Commission
445 12th Street, SW
Washington, DC 20554

Re: Unlicensed Operation in the TV Broadcast Bands (ET Docket No. 04-186) Response to NAB, et al. Ex Parte Filing of October 22, 2008

Dear Ms. Dortch:

I am writing in response to an ex parte filing in this docket by the National Association of Broadcasters and their member and affiliated broadcasting industry groups (NAB, et al.) on October 22, which falsely characterized my remarks about over-the-air television and more efficient spectrum utilization at a recent public policy forum. The ex parte then extrapolates to charge that “certain [unnamed] white space proponents” harbor “antipathy – indeed, hostility towards the public’s television service.” Although we realize the broadcast lobby, in their desperation, has already squandered what was left of their credibility in this proceeding by also attacking the integrity and motives of the Commission’s Office of Engineering and Technology. Nevertheless, I’d like to set the record straight about our position concerning the importance of protecting over-the-air television reception from harmful interference.

After stringing together a series of out-of-context quotations from Communications Daily, based on presentations by myself and by Mark McHenry, CEO of Shared Spectrum Company, at a public forum at Google on October 21, the NAB et al. filing asserts that “[T]he end game for these groups is, over the next few years, to increase the power of personal, portable devices to dangerously high levels, with complete disregard for the effects on the public’s television broadcasting service (as well as on licensed wireless microphone operations and cable).” NAB et al. then suggest that “white space proponent[s]” (including, presumably, me) may be “motivated by the goal of destroying television or … just indifferent to the consequences of embracing sensing technologies that have failed . . .”.

Nothing could be further from the truth. From the outset of this proceeding, the New America Foundation and other members of the Public Interest Spectrum Coalition (PISC) have consistently invested in and advocated solutions that would both protect remaining over-the-air TV consumers from harmful interference, while simultaneously permitting those consumers – and the far larger number of households that subscribe to cable and satellite TV – to access the vacant TV channels for more affordable broadband access (both fixed and mobile) and other wireless innovation for the future. We have consistently sought to maximize both spectrum efficiency and consumer welfare – both of which are undermined every day that the majority of TV channels lie fallow.

In fact, a number of our Public Interest Spectrum Coalition partners and fellow proponents of making good use of unused TV spectrum – particularly Consumers Union and the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights – have simultaneously been the most committed advocates of protecting the ability of the public to access free over-the-air TV during and after the DTV transition deadline. They have fought, as has New America, to increase funding for both converter boxes and public education. Indeed, New America Foundation was the first group to propose to Congress – as a solution to the DTV switchover dilemma – the idea that an auction should precede the deadline, with a share of the proceeds set aside in a trust to subsidize consumer digital-to-analog converter boxes, so that no OTA viewer would lose access to their local stations.

To read the full letter, please see the attached PDF below.