Congressional Republican and industry opposition are mounting over President-elect Barack Obama’s call to delay next-month’s digital television transition, with the nation’s two largest telecom carriers divided over how Congress should proceed.
“[The transition] is freeing broadcast spectrum for firefighters, police officers and other life-savers and also providing them with $1 billion to equip themselves with the state-of-the-art communications gear that was so tragically lacking on 9/11,” stated ranking House Commerce Committee Joe Barton (R-Texas) and 14 other members of the panel in a letter to Obama. “The transition plan is freeing additional spectrum for advanced wireless broadband services and has raised almost $20 billion in spectrum auction proceeds for taxpayers.”
The lawmakers added that “none of this would have happened without the certainty of a deadline. No one said this was going to be easy, but we have unquestionably made the right decision to complete the digital television transition on Feb. 17, 2009. We believe that panicky talk of a delay is breeding stultifying uncertainty, and that an actual delay would be a monumental error in judgment that would damage the program and the public.”
Public-safety groups want 700 MHz spectrum assigned to first responders to be excluded from a DTV transition delay.
House Commerce Committee Republicans said the Obama transition team is overreacting and exaggerating challenges to a DTV transition that they claim is largely on track, disagreeing with the notion that the coupon program for digital-to-analog converter boxes has run out of money. The lawmakers said they are working on bipartisan bill to make minor technical changes to ensure the rest of the 10 million over-the-air TV households get vouchers to subsidize the cost of converter boxes.
“A change in the date could engender skepticism, confusion and distrust the next time government asks them to undertake specific actions in anticipation of a major event,” stated the Consumer Electronics Association.
The National Association of Broadcasters – whose members would feel the DTV transition delay most directly and immediately – issued a statement on the Obama request to delay the DTV switch-over date without saying whether it supports or opposes the proposal.
VZW dead set against any delay
In contrast, Verizon Communications Inc. and AT&T Inc. – parent companies of the No. 1 and No. 2 wireless providers – were frank and candid in communicating their views to leading lawmakers. The two carriers accounted for the lion’s share of the nearly $20 billion of licenses captured in the 700 MHz auction last year. The 700 MHz spectrum set to be surrendered by broadcasters at midnight Feb. 17 comprise the airwaves wireless carriers purchased rights to in last year’s auction.
Verizon is dead set against a delay, while AT&T Mobility is willing to deal with the incoming Obama administration and Democratic-controlled Congress on postponing the DTV transition for up to 90 days. This is not a surprise; Verizon Wireless is banking on the 700 MHz spectrum it won during the auction to support its planned Long Term Evolution rollout that the carrier hopes to begin later this year, while AT&T Mobility is set to ride its current spectrum holdings to further update its HSPA network and not delve into its 700 MHz spectrum winnings to rollout LTE until at least 2012.
“Delaying the DTV transition will delay our ability to upgrade those frequencies to 4G broadband for American consumers and have a negative impact on our nation’s international competitiveness,” Verizon told House and Senate lawmakers.
AT&T, noting the complexities involved in the migration to DTV as well as the mix of stakeholders implicated and the public-interest issues at stake, said it would agree to a brief extension “if Congress and the administration conclude that a short delay in implementation of the DTV transition is necessary.”
The AT&T position could undermine concerns raised last week by cellular industry association CTIA over a DTV transition delay.
The outcome of the debate over a delay is far from certain. The two chambers in Congress are approaching the DTV transition dilemma in markedly different fashions. The Senate Commerce Committee is said to be scrambling to write legislation permitting the kind of limited DTV transition extension suggested by AT&T. In the House, Barton and other lawmakers are working on a measure that would effectively keep the Feb. 17 cut-over date intact.
