Senate committee exempts public safety from DTV delay, but Qualcomm remains snubbed: MediaFLO launches contingent on DTV switch-over

Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.) said a compromise reached on a bill to delay the digital TV transition to June 12 includes a carve-out for first responders, setting the stage for a floor vote and possibly full congressional passage next week.
“This legislation is not perfect. But it represents a turning point – a start,” Rockefeller said. “The record will reflect that I have spent years advocating a different course. I voted against the Deficit Reduction Act of 2005, which set this hard date for the transition deep in the winter. I voted against this bill in both the Commerce Committee and during its consideration by the full Senate because it fell short of a real plan for minimizing consumer disruption. I voted against this bill because it failed to spend any resources building a national interoperable public-safety communications network in the spectrum vacated by analog broadcasting. Voting ‘no’ was by no means a popular thing to do. In fact, I was one of only three ‘no’ votes in the Commerce Committee.”
Public-safety organizations and Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) pushed for the first responder exemption in the measure.
Congressional Democrats have been scrambling to postpone the scheduled Feb. 17 DTV cut-over ever since the then-Obama transition team urged lawmakers on Jan. 8 to change the date because of a snafu with the converter box coupon program and other problems. In addition to making concessions to public-safety agencies licensed on the same 700 MHz band still used for analog broadcasting, the revised Rockefeller bill likely will enable mobile-phone carriers to begin conducting equipment testing in the band by mid-February and could offer relief on network buildout requirements.
House Commerce Committee Chairman Henry Waxman (D-Calif.), who abruptly cancelled a markup of a DTV transition delay bill earlier this week when it looked like a Senate compromise was within reach, likely will adopt the Senate version of the bill. It is unclear how fast, however, a companion bill can get to the House floor.
The mobile industry has had a hard time swallowing the idea of having to wait longer for access to 700 MHz spectrum – currently occupied by TV broadcasters – that wireless providers spent nearly $20 billion to acquire rights to. Verizon Wireless and AT&T Mobility, the big winners in last year’s 700 MHz auction, initially took different positions on the Obama-proposed DTV transition delay. AT&T Mobility, the No. 2 cellular operator, agreed to a postponement of 90 days or so, while No. 1 Verizon Wireless initially opposed a delay before changing its stance after getting assurances from congressional and Obama transitional officials that a delay would not be open-ended.
Qualcomm’s MediaFLO troubles
Qualcomm Inc., the San Diego-based CDMA technology leader, has argued to lawmakers that any DTV transition delay will hinder the nationwide rollout of its mobile TV service – MediaFLO – on 700 MHz spectrum purchased from the federal government. MediaFLO is currently on the air in 65 markets, but the strategy to take it national is largely predicated on the Feb. 17 DTV transition date. Qualcomm said it has invested hundreds of million of dollar to build new transmitters in anticipation of firing them up on Feb. 18.
Indeed, Qualcomm executive VP and COO Len Lauer said the legislation to push back the DTV transition should be renamed the “economic de-stimulus act.”
Qualcomm has requested that any delay approved by Congress require nine TV stations to surrender 700 MHz analog frequencies by the current transition deadline to enable MediaFLO to begin running in Boston, Houston, Miami and San Francisco next month.