WASHINGTON – Television broadcasters may share their digital channels to make room for mobile high-speed Internet service under new rules, Federal Communications Commission Chairman Julius Genachowski said.
The voluntary sharing and an easier process for experimental use of airwaves are among strategies for making more space available for Web use that the agency plans to discuss at its meeting next month, Genachowski said Thursday.
Demand for airwaves, or spectrum, is outstripping supply as consumers use data-hungry smartphones and tablet devices such as Apple Inc.’s iPad, Genachowski said at an agency event in Washington. The value of spectrum to be freed for new uses might reach $120 billion, he said.
“We can drive billions of dollars in private investment,” Genachowski said. “If we don’t act to update our policies for the 21st century, we’re going to run into a wall — a spectrum crunch.”
President Barack Obama said in June the United States should almost double the airwaves available for smartphones, laptop connections to the Internet and new wireless devices.
“We’re going to continue to move forward aggressively,” Genachowski said. Revisions of rules are needed to let stations share airwaves and allow new uses for their channels, he said.
TV stations transmit using digital technology and can broadcast two or more channels over airwaves that supported a single channel using the analog format, according to an FCC fact sheet. Letting stations voluntarily share channels would free airwaves that might be auctioned in the future for other uses, the FCC said.
Broadcasters’ Needs
Broadcasters have said they need their current swath of airwaves to offer viewers multiple programs at the same time, and to expand into services such as mobile TV.
Dennis Wharton, a spokesman for the National Association of Broadcasters, said in an e-mail yesterday the Washington-based trade group “looks forward to working with the FCC” to meet the needs of a mobile Internet “without compromising the finest free and local broadcasting system in the world.”
