[opendtv] Re: FCC chairman offers plan to save broadcasters - CNET
- From: "Manfredi, Albert E" <albert.e.manfredi@xxxxxxxxxx>
- To: "opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx" <opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Wed, 9 Apr 2014 23:32:04 +0000
Craig Birkmaier posted:
http://www.cnet.com/news/fcc-chairman-offers-plan-to-save-broadcasters/
No one is stating the whole truth. Not the NAB, not the FCC.
1. The TV frequency bands are hardly ideal for 4G and 5G. Both of those
evolutions require smaller and smaller cells and higher and higher frequency
bands. 5G is being conceived for carrier frequencies up in the multiple 10s of
GHz. If the FCC thinks that yanking the UHF frequencies from broadcasters is
going to solve anything at all, wrt broadband wireless, I'm pretty positive
that they are deceiving themselves.
2. The only practical and believable way of getting broadcast TV to cell phones
is for the FCC to break up the cellco stranglehold on cell phone manufacturers.
As is, there's a counter-incentive for cellcos to permit independent broadcast
TV bands on their phones.
3. The one-to-many advantage of broadcast TV is valid only as far as it can
depend on few big sticks. If it has to depend on a thick forest of cell-like
towers, not only does the cost equation change, but you're also going to be
having to deal with environmentalists (more and more radiation from existing
cell towers, very close to where people live, is hardly a slam dunk). So if
broadcasters really want to transmit direct to cell phones, they should be
lobbying for a change in that cellco model, and they should consider something
along the lines of DVB-T2 (with btw consequent less than ideal spectral
efficiency and SFN spacing for fixed devices -- no free lunch).
4. In spite of Wheeler's vague comment, the most valuable and quantitatively
largest amount of content the local broadcasters air is not their own content.
So to have a meaningful role on the Internet, aside from a few minutes per day
of their own content, local broadcasters have to refocus their content
distribution role from the airwaves to ISP networks. Provide a service that
matters in this new reality.
I think that as things are now, the only likely outcome will be that TV content
will go to cell phones only via cellco networks, and that OTA TV spectrum will
probably remain used as is. I don't think any huge demand for that spectrum to
come from forward-thinking cellcos. If cellcos do buy any of this TV spectrum,
it won't be to use it, as much as to keep broadcasters from having any chance
at direct transmissions to cell phones.
Bert
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