In a recent GigaOm post, Stacy Higginbotham suggests cable’s concern with white space devices is a response to the new broadband competition they would provide to cable.  Michael addressed NCTA’s ex parte filing earlier this week, but it’s important to understand what has happened in the longer history of the white spaces debate.

Cable’s concerns have been based solely on technical issues.  Cable has been very patient in this process, extending over several years.  We first raised our technical concerns at the FCC in the white spaces proceeding four years ago. At the same time we have reached out continuously to the white spaces proponents for constructive solutions.  In 2007, we submitted a detailed technical study which described our interference concerns.

The important thing to keep in mind here is that cable has no white spaces. While various proposals and ex parte advocacy filings have been submitted in this proceeding, none have addressed the implications of TV band devices operating on the same frequencies used by cable. None have focused on the potential disruption of customer viewing of cable programming.

This inattention has persevered despite detailed filings by NCTA demonstrating the high likelihood that unlicensed personal/portable TV band devices, as currently proposed, will interfere with cable service. The Commission’s own findings in lab tests a year ago confirmed the serious risks of “direct pickup” (DPU) interference to cable-ready DTV receivers.  Now, early reports of Commission field tests further demonstrate that the risk to cable consumers is very real.

A second problem is the high risk of interference to rural cable headend antenna reception.  Cable systems in rural communities often rely on tower-mounted, high gain directional antennas to receive broadcast signals.  Many of these headend sites are outside the station’s predicted Grade B contour.

NCTA has urged the Commission to take full account of the unique hazards to cable before it approves unlicensed transmitters on TV white spaces frequencies.

We think this is a straightforward problem that needs to be addressed.  We continue to support efforts to open up additional spectrum for the delivery of new wireless communications.  However, the customers we serve have every right to expect this to be fixed before that happens.

Tags: Broadband, White Spaces

This entry was posted on Thursday, September 18th, 2008 at 3:50 pm and is filed under Broadband, NCTA Actions, Tech Discussions, White Spaces. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.