As OTA leaves 600 MHz, stations set for ‘difficult transition’: expert

Industry Canada will repurpose the 600 MHz spectrum band for mobile use and collaborate with the United States on the move, which means at least some over-the-air (OTA) television stations will have to find new frequencies if they want to continue broadcasting. One question is how many of those stations will actually make the switch, Gregory Taylor, an assistant professor of mass communications at the University of Calgary, said in a phone interview. “One of the things we’ll have to watch is what the expense of this is going to be,” he said, noting that broadcasters asked to be compensated for the change during Industry Canada’s consultation process on the spectrum. Broadcasters were responsible for the costs of a similar move in the 2011 digital transition, which involved $113 million in equipment costs, according to the Canadian Association of Broadcasters. In its decision Friday, Industry Canada said that discussions about compensation were outside of the scope of the consultation. “Given that they just transferred to different channels in 2011, this is a very short window to be doing it again,” Taylor said. “And I guess from that, what will have to be determined, is will they all do it? “ he added. “Will they go through this process again, or will some decide, in what is seen as not a growing market, to give up their licence?” Taylor said he suspects “most will hang on,” given that only a few stations stopped broadcasting in 2011. “But this is certainly going to be a difficult transition, especially for some of the smaller broadcasters,” he said. At the moment, how many broadcasters will have to make the move and when they will have to do so is still unclear, Taylor said. That’s because Canada is coordinating the transition with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in the U.S. Industry Canada said in the decision there are benefits to such coordination, “particularly when it comes to OTA TV broadcasting (due to the long range of broadcast transmissions and the high percentage of the Canadian population that lives along the Canada-US border) and mobile services (as Canadians would benefit from the economies of scale of the ecosystem developed for the United States).” The specific amount of spectrum that will be repurposed hasn’t been determined yet, but could range between 20 and 120 MHz, Industry Canada noted. In the U.S., the FCC will hold an auction in 2016 designed to encourage over-the-air broadcasters to “to voluntarily relinquish some or all of their spectrum usage rights in exchange for proceeds from an auction of new mobile licences,” Industry Canada said. The amount of spectrum Canada will repurpose will be determined by the outcome of the U.S. auction in 2016. Taylor said the decision to coordinate with the U.S. wasn’t a surprise, given that “this is how we have largely designed our system from the earliest days of radio,” and that Canada has followed the U.S. “on pretty much every element of our wireless policy for the past 10 years.” TV stations broadcasting in the 600 MHz band can continue using their current channels until the spectrum is needed for mobile purposes, at which point Industry Canada will issue a notice, the department said. Both low-power and regular-power stations in the 600 MHz band in urban areas will be given one year’s notice, while stations outside of urban areas will have two years. In addition to OTA, the 600 MHz band is used for other purposes, including remote rural broadband systems, and low-power devices like wireless microphones and camera systems. In its decision, Industry Canada said there is a need for more spectrum for wireless devices. “In Canada, data usage for these devices is growing, and mobile data traffic is expected to grow 9-fold from 2013 to 2018,” the decision said. “To address these challenges, Canada must allocate sufficient spectrum to mobile broadband use.” According to projections, “Canada will require at least 473 MHz and as much as 820 MHz of spectrum to be allocated to commercial mobile services by 2017,” it said, adding the government had made 648 MHz available for mobile use as of April 2015. Industry Canada said that harmonizing spectrum use with the U.S. will “facilitate Canadian access to the latest wireless devices and network technologies built for their market, ensuring lower costs and wider availability of equipment.” It added that harmonization will also minimize interference and make wireless roaming easier. Taylor noted that there have been a number of spectrum auctions in Canada in recent years, “mostly following the U.S. lead, as we’re doing again, but what’s interesting is that there isn’t another one on the foreseeable horizon,” notwithstanding a sale of spectrum scheduled next week for unsold licences from this year's AWS-3 auction and last year's sale of 700 MHz spectrum. He said the lack of major spectrum sales in the near term makes 600 MHz “very important.” During the 700 MHz auction, that spectrum was referred to as “beachfront property,” he noted. “Well, here’s some more beachfront coming up right here. It’s the low spectrum, it’s got great propagation characteristics, so there will be a big demand for it,” he added. John Lawford, executive director of the Public Interest Advocacy Centre (PIAC), said in a phone interview that the decision reflects different priorities at Industry Canada and the CRTC. During one of the CRTC’s Let’s Talk TV consultation announcements, Chairman Jean-Pierre Blais posed with an antenna while talking about the importance of OTA, Lawford noted. In one of those decisions, the CRTC said broadcasters would not be able to use simultaneous substitution if they shut down their over-the-air transmitters. “It kind of underlines the need for Industry Canada to talk to their buddies over at CRTC and maybe coordinate,” he said. “Because I have the chairman standing up with a gigantic aerial saying over-the-air is so important, and then Industry Canada coming around to say, 'Actually, it’s not because wireless is more important.' " BCE Inc. declined to comment on the decision, while Shaw Communications Inc. did not respond to a request for comment. Rogers Communications Inc. spokesman Aaron Lazarus said in an email that “mobile technology is connecting Canadians, especially as we use more and more streaming video. We’re excited about any initiative that looks to add lanes to our wireless highway and put these valuable resources to good use for Canadians.” — With reporting by Anja Karadeglija at akarad@thewirereport.ca and editing by Derek Abma at dabma@thewirereport.ca

As OTA leaves 600 MHz, stations set for ‘difficult transition’: expert

News | 08/18/2015 8:34 pm EDT

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