Industry Canada could get in the way of U.S. spectrum plan, broadcaster says

A bilateral working agreement regulating spectrum allocation along the Canada-U.S. border could complicate a U.S. congressional proposal to free up more frequencies from traditional TV broadcasters for wireless broadband, an American broadcast company says. The TV broadcasting service treaty requires Industry Canada and the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to coordinate when assigning new uses for spectrum in markets within about 400 kilometres of the Canada-U.S. border. The goal of the agreement is to ensure that Canadian or American spectrum uses do not cause interference on one another's channels and frequencies. As a part of the country’s 2010 National Broadband Plan, the FCC is seeking to free up 500 MHz of spectrum for mobile broadband use. Last month, a special U.S. congressional committee looking at reducing the federal deficit proposed to auction off 120 MHz of spectrum now used for over-the-air TV broadcasts on channels 32-51. Each channel uses up 6 MHz of broadcast spectrum to operate. Mark Aitken, vice-president of advanced technology for America’s largest local broadcaster, the Sinclair Broadcasting Group, said in an interview that forcing TV stations now using those signals to vacate the frequencies could force many of them to go off the air entirely. Aitken and other broadcasters say the bilateral spectrum agreement ensures that Industry Canada has the right to object to any new American spectrum allocations along shared border areas. He said any new spectrum allocation that interferes with Canadian services is likely to trigger an objection from Industry Canada. “In Detroit, for example, no matter how you move the pieces around, you end up with no space to accommodate any stations in that market because, on the other side of the border, you’ve got requirements to protect services on the air in Canada,” Aitken said. “So what happens to a city like Detroit?” Wayne Stacey, a Canadian spectrum consultant with Wayne A. Stacey & Associates in Ottawa, said the agreement could throw a wrench into American plans that involve broadcasters switching frequencies. “If they want to do that with South Carolina that’s fine, they only have to deal with domestic stations,” Stacey said of the proposal to clear the broadcasters’ spectrum for broadband use. “But when they get up into the border areas ... then clearly they’re in the coordination zone and they couldn’t expect that the channel would necessarily be vacated by television in Canada.” Stacey said the American proposal is not impossible but “has a lot of hoops to jump through before it can get anywhere.” If Congress approved the plan, the FCC would also have to convince American broadcasters to vacate the sought-after spectrum. In recent years, Stacey said, American and Canadian broadcasters vacated spectrum above channel 51 as part of a coordinated approach to the conversion from analog to digital over-the-air television. In both cases, he said, the switch came at a considerable cost to broadcasters who did not benefit from the resulting spectrum auctions. “There was absolutely nothing in it for the Canadian or American broadcasters in vacating the spectrum above 51,” Stacey said. In the U.S., some companies are calling for a reverse auction, which would see some of the proceeds compensate affected broadcasters. But under U.S. law, any money earned through FCC auctions is automatically directed to the U.S. treasury. Only an act of Congress could enable the commission to redirect those funds to broadcasters, and it's unclear whether the U.S. political climate would afford such a move, Stacey said. Aitken compared the current spectrum situation to a crowded chessboard on which there is only a limited number of spaces for pieces to move. Like a game of chess, he said, American decision-makers should recognize that their strategic options on the spectrum front are impacted by the other players on the board. “There are levels of that chess game, such as these border agreements, that impact the moves you can make,” he said. “When you start moving all of these chess pieces around, the U.S. gets locked in in some areas of the country with solutions that are very much out of our immediate control.” Michel Cimpaye, a spokesman for Industry Canada, said in an email statement Wednesday that there is currently no treaty or spectrum coordination arrangement for the "compression" of channels 31 to 51. "The 2008 arrangement simply protects digital channels below channel 52 as a consequence of the most recent digital TV transition. The US and Canada use of border spectrum will continue to respect the existing arrangements and treaties to protect our respective stations," he wrote. Adrian Foster, a Canadian spectrum expert and partner with McLean Foster and Co. in Ottawa, said he doubts that Industry Canada would stand in the way of U.S. plans to increase broadband capacity. In the past, he said, Canada has always tried to accommodate American spectrum plans as much as possible. “Quite frankly, it’s in our interest to do so,” he said. The U.S. has identified the rollout of more broadband as a vital component of the country’s economy, and Canada would not be wise to object to American spectrum re-allocation, Foster said. “Canada’s not interested in holding back the U.S. economy,” he said. The bilateral spectrum treaty doesn’t specify that Canada can block any American spectrum plans. It says that the two administrations are required to coordinate a solution to any problems that should arise. “All it says is that it binds the two parties to talk to each other to solve problems,” Foster said. “America thinks of the American economy first. I think it’s naïve to think America won’t go ahead because Canada has been slow to reach a decision on the issue.” nkyonka@thewirereport.ca

Industry Canada could get in the way of U.S. spectrum plan, broadcaster says

Broadcast | November 8, 2011

Unlock all the Canadian telecom, broadcasting and digital media news you need.

FREE TRIAL

SUBSCRIBE

Inside The Wire Report

Information

Hill Times Publishing

Get in Touch With Us