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The transition will trigger intense innovation and change - and not just for broadcasters. The UHF band spectrum is coveted for high bandwidth services, for its long-distance range and ability to penetrate buildings. The spectrum brings with it wider choices of broadcast, data and interactive services: digital TV channels in SD or HD, mobile voice, data, broadcast and other video/media, broadband wireless applications, broadcast production and live events; Wi-Fi and public safety.
This is the so-called "digital dividend": the UHF band spectrum available for new uses as a result of digital television switchover. In a September 3, 2010 interview with Canadian Communications Reports, former CRTC Vice-Chairman Michel Arpin suggested that the phrase "digital dividend" was foreign to Canada, making the point that there's much to be done to plot out how best to reap the rewards of the transition.
Whatever you call it, broadcasters want to be counted in. Not only have they invested heavily in the transition, they want to ensure that they'll have the spectrum they need in the future. The September BD article referenced Astral Media Inc.'s comments on post-transition spectrum allocation in its July 13, 2010 submission to Industry Canada's Consultation Paper on a Digital Economy Strategy for Canada. In Astral's view, it would be "remarkably short-sighted" to re-allocate broadcasting spectrum "in such quantities that [digital broadcasting] technologies could not be exploited in the future".
This echoes the broader international debate over how to distribute post-transition spectrum between broadcasting and other services.
"We Must Get Going Soon"
Industry Canada's Consultation Paper of May 2010 states that it "intends to provide access to additional spectrum through - making available the 700 MHz band for next generation wireless as the analogue broadcast services are transitioned to digital television in 2011". More urgently, Industry Minister Tony Clement used Twitter to announce froma tour of China in early September that "we must get the 700mHz auction going soon". Expect Industry Canada to release a public consultation on the use of the 700 MHz band in the coming months.
The consultation will focus on making spectrum available to meet the needs of emerging broadband services, and will cover policy issues, frequency band structure and stakeholders' spectrum requirements. Consultations will then begin to design the auction for 700 MHz, leading to an auction in late 2012.
Industry Canada knows well that the transition makes for a range of competing interests. It also cannot fail to recognize that with its foreign ownership review well underway, there is the prospect of much larger foreign players having their eyes on Canada's spectrum auction. Can we afford to wait for the conclusion of this review? Can we afford not to?
U.S. Reaping Rewards Of Digital Dividend
The U.S. spectrum policy has been closely linked to the public coffers. The Digital Television Transition and Public Safety Act of 2005 was actually part of that year's Deficit Reduction Act, and provided for the U.S. Treasury to receive $7.3 billion from the auction proceeds.
The FCC's auction of the 700 MHz band in 2008 was market-based and put few restrictions on the types of services to be offered. As expected, mobile operators such as Verizon and AT&T dominated.
Relatively smaller operators Qualcomm and MediaFLOW also picked up spectrum for broadcasting to mobile devices. In the end (with one block of spectrum still remaining), the auction garnered over $19 billion and facilitated the launch of two massive 4G network deployments.
Some broadcasters expressed early interest, but according to the laws of supply and demand (and pocket depth), were not easily able to compete with the mobile giants. Also, while television broadcasters had once sought spectrum for datacasting, by the time of the auction Internet protocol television (IPTV) had overtaken datacasting. Broadcasters have largely been working within the 6 MHz digital channels allocated to them when they transitioned to digital, which gives them considerable - but not unlimited - spectrum to offer mobile DTV and other enhanced services.
The FCC's recent National Broadband Plan cautioned that the current spectrum allocations were not enough to keep up with demand for high speed wireless Internet, and proposed that more spectrum be reallocated from broadcasters.
The NAB has been vocal on the need to let broadcasters keep expanding and improving their digital services, saying "free TV viewers must continue to be the beneficiaries of video innovation".
The UK and Europe: Maximizing The Digital Dividend
The scene is similar overseas. UK communications regulator Ofcom launched its Digital Dividend Review in 2005, prompting hundreds of comments and a national debate on spectrum allocation.
As in the U.S., the government's overall policy was to take a technology neutral, market-based approach. The BBC raised red flags around the potential for "pure market" auctions to endanger the greater policy objective of ensuring high quality digital terrestrial broadcasting and the ability of free-to-air broadcasters to compete with other technologies.
The European Broadcasting Union has argued the same, that "a sufficient amount of spectrum is needed to preserve and fully exploit the benefits of terrestrial broadcasting, today and in the future". In 2008, European mobile leaders Ericsson, Nokia, Orange, T-Mobile and Vodafone commissioned a broadcast migration study on how to allocate liberated UHF spectrum optimally between broadcasters and mobile operators. The result? Allocating approximately 25% to mobile broadband would "maximize the value to the European economy", generating between "63bn and "165bn.
The Global System for Mobile Communications Association, representing the interests of the worldwide mobile industry, reads this to mean that "there will still be plenty of spectrum available for broadcasters to develop and enhance their digital TV services". Time will tell.
What's Next?
Broadcasters will need to take a strong stand in the upcoming Canadian consultations to be heard alongside telecommunications providers. All stakeholders will need to be involved to set priorities, goals and timeframes.
Because Canada is starting later than other jurisdictions have, we have the opportunity to watch and learn. But given our later start, while the "digital dividend" is actively being debated here, Internet delivery may start overtaking spectrum issues. Making that not only the conclusion of one article in these pages, but the beginning of a whole new one.
Source: Broadcast Dialogue, 11/2010
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