WASHINGTON—Federal regulators are considering taking back some airwaves from television broadcasters and auctioning them off to wireless companies to increase the availability of wireless broadband services.
Federal Communications Commission Chairman Julius Genachowski has warned that the U.S. doesn't have enough airwaves set aside for wireless broadband service in the future, and the agency is looking at a variety of ways to remedy that shortage.
"The record is very clear that we're facing a looming spectrum gap," said Blair Levin, a former telecom analyst who is in charge of crafting the FCC's national broadband plan, which is expected to lay out a variety of things the U.S. can do to increase broadband availability and usage. The plan will be released in February.
It's not clear if the proposal will actually make it into the FCC's final plan. At this stage, FCC officials are mostly trying to get input from broadcasters and others. Station owners are likely to fight the plan, although the FCC is envisioning paying broadcasters for any airwaves that are taken away.
The agency is "looking at everything, including broadcasting" airwaves, Mr. Levin said.
The National Association of Broadcasters "believes it is imperative that policy makers explore spectrum efficiency choices that don't limit consumer access to the full potential of digital broadcasting," said spokesman Dennis Wharton.
On Friday, the Consumer Electronics Association released a study it commissioned on the value of the large chunk of airwaves set aside for TV broadcasters. If the FCC took back all of those airwaves and auctioned them off, the government could make up to $62 billion, the study found.
Such an approach would cost about $12 billion in payments to broadcasters and about $9 billion to "migrate all households that rely on over-the-air broadcasts to subscription services," the study found.
The political will to take such an approach could be weak, however, because the federal government just spent $2.15 billion over the last two years to help consumers move to digital-only broadcast television. Consumers who rely on free TV now might also take a dim view of being asked to subscribe to cable or satellite television,. Many of them just had to go through the trouble of either buying new digital TVs or hooking up digital converter boxes to their old TVs to keep them working.
The FCC isn't looking at taking away all of the broadcasters' airwaves. Instead, FCC officials are focusing on the benefits of taking back a portion of the airwaves set aside for digital TV broadcasts and auctioning those off to wireless companies that want to offer more wireless Internet services. It's not clear yet how much of the airwaves they might suggest taking back.
Some broadcast-station owners are already expressing concern about the idea. They want to keep those airwaves for themselves. Many broadcasters would like wireless phones and other gadgets to come equipped with receivers that would allow consumers to watch digital TV.
"CEA's study ignores the immeasurable public benefit of a vibrant free and local broadcasting system that is ubiquitous, reliable as a lifeline service in times of emergency, and flexible enough to include HDTV, diverse multicast programming and mobile DTV," said Mr. Wharton, the broadcasters' spokesman.
