NAB's Neplokh Hammers Google on Vacant Channel Proposal
A Google-backed proposal to leave a channel vacant for unlicensed use is “really about turning away existing [low-power] LPTV stations to make room for unlicensed Google devices,” said NAB Vice President-Spectrum Policy Alison Neplokh in a blog post Friday. Google…
Sign up for a free preview to unlock the rest of this article
If your job depends on informed compliance, you need International Trade Today. Delivered every business day and available any time online, only International Trade Today helps you stay current on the increasingly complex international trade regulatory environment.
and Microsoft's arguments that there's enough spectrum to go around are false, Neplokh said. “If that were actually true, Google and Microsoft wouldn’t need a policy change; they could simply use the available space under the FCC’s existing TV white spaces rules,” she wrote. “They know, however, that the incentive auction will send many LPTVs scrambling for new homes and that some markets are going to have such scarce spectrum availability." Google's claims that white space uses are more important than TV are also false, she said: “While unlicensed devices have other neighborhoods -- 2.4 GHz, 5.8 GHz, now 3.5 GHz -- the spectrum at issue is television’s only home.” Google and Microsoft didn't comment.