Broadband & Community Broadband

New America Foundation (NAF), Champaign Urbana Wireless Network (CUWN), and Free Press (FP) (collectively NAF, et al.) do not dispute either the importance of maintaining the safety of the nuclear power industry to our national critical infrastructure or the usefulness of the proposed devices to the nuclear industry. Were these the only factors to consider, NAF, et al. would wholeheartedly support the above captioned request for waiver.

The broadcast industry’s digital TV (DTV) transition involves the future use of two different sets of frequencies (channels): channels 2-to-51 and channels 52-to-69. Channels 52-to-69 are all to be cleared of broadcasting at the end of DTV transition and reallocated for public safety agencies and for auction to commercial wireless services. Recently passed Congressional legislation proposing a fixed deadline for the DTV transition only addressed the future of channels 52-69. Channels 2-to-51 will remain allocated to DTV.

At its recent markup, the House Commerce Committee included language in the digital TV transition bill directing the FCC to complete its proposed rulemaking to open up vacant, unused channels in the TV band spectrum (so-called "white space") for unlicensed wireless broadband use (Docket 04-186).

From the fire fighters who died on 9/11 to the rescue workers struggling to help victims of Hurricane Katrina, the absence of reliable and interoperable voice and data communications among public safety agencies has become an urgent national dilemma. Within the coming weeks, the Senate Commerce Committee will mark up DTV legislation likely to impose a hard deadline on the clearance of TV channels 52 to 69 -- freeing up precious spectrum for public safety voice interoperability and for auction to commercial broadband services.

On May 13, 2004, the Federal Communications Commission approved a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) proposing to allow a new generation of wireless devices to utilize vacant television channel frequencies in each market. This so-called TV band “white space” consists of frequencies that are allocated for television broadcasting but are not actually in use in a given area. The FCC’s proposed rulemaking is pending but currently inactive.

We've all heard the dire statistics. The U.S. has fallen to 16th in the world in broadband penetration. The dominant cable and DSL duopoly is failing to bring affordable broadband connectivity

On July 12, 2005, Michael Calabrese testified before the full Senate Commerce Committee about issues regarding the nation's transition from analog to digital television (DTV) broadcasting. Below is a summary of his testimony. To access the full transcript, refer to the PDF file linked below.