2022-05-11

NWCC Responds to NAB’s Concerns of Greater Interference

Source: EWA
Curated by: Gert Jan Wolf - Editor-in Chief for The Critical Communications Review

In a letter filed May 10, 2022, the National Wireless Communications Council (NWCC) responded to a suggestion from the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) that the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) take no further action on NWCC’s Petition for Rulemaking for fear of increasing the potential for interference in 470-512 MHz (T-Band), which is shared by television broadcasters and land mobile radio systems in certain markets in the United States. The Petition seeks to modernize FCC Part 90 rules to “reflect the television industry’s transition from analog to digital format and the resulting change in the protection required from land mobile facilities. This technical reality is incorporated in Part 73 of the rules governing television-to-television station protection criteria.” Grant of the requested rule changes would create the potential for only a modest increase in land mobile use of 470-512 MHz.

In its letter, NWCC stated that it “does not expect the changes proposed in the Petition to result in additional cases of interference from television stations to land mobile operations. It would not have filed the Petition if that were the expected result. However, in the unlikely event that interference should occur, the NWCC is confident that the FCC will pursue its normal course of determining how to resolve the matter to serve the public interest, without prejudging where responsibility lies as demanded by NAB.”