[opendtv] Government Hungry for TV's Airwaves
- From: Monty Solomon <monty@xxxxxxxxxx>
- To: undisclosed-recipient: ;
- Date: Mon, 13 Sep 2004 01:37:01 -0400
Government Hungry for TV's Airwaves
By Christopher Stern
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, September 10, 2004; Page E01
Federal regulators are stepping up their pressure on television
stations to give up billions of dollars worth of airwaves in major
markets around the country, saying the spectrum is urgently needed by
local public safety officials.
Seizing on a conclusion of the 9/11 Commission Report, Congress and
the Federal Communications Commission are using the limits of the
nation's emergency communications system to try to kick-start the
process of converting television broadcasters from analog signals to
digital ones.
The conversion would free large segments of the broadcast spectrum
for emergency services in major metropolitan areas. The 9/11
Commission concluded that emergency communications were crippled by
the sudden spike in cell phone calls in the hours immediately after
the terrorist attacks, and it called on Congress to pass legislation
that would take some of the spectrum back from broadcasters.
The conversion from analog to digital is supposed to be well underway
already. In 1996, Congress granted television stations second
channels for digital service in return for their promise to surrender
the portion of the broadcast spectrum on which analog signals
operate. That would allow the government to turn parts of the
spectrum over to local emergency authorities and auction the rest to
wireless companies or other investors.
The analog spectrum is worth an estimated $70 billion.
The process has been slowed, however, by consumers not replacing
their old analog sets with expensive new digital televisions as
quickly as had been hoped.
...
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A9785-2004Sep9.html
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