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The broadcast industry’s digital TV (DTV) transition involves the future use of two different sets of frequencies (channels): channels 2-to-51 and channels 52-to-69. Channels 52-to-69 are all to be cleared of broadcasting at the end of DTV transition and reallocated for public safety agencies and for auction to commercial wireless services. Recently passed Congressional legislation proposing a fixed deadline for the DTV transition only addressed the future of channels 52-69. Channels 2-to-51 will remain allocated to DTV. But because an average of only seven full-power local TV stations operate in each of the nation’s 210 local TV markets, many of these channe1s will remain unassigned and unused after the DTV transition. These unused channels – often called “white space” – vary market-by-market, so any wireless device certified by the FCC to use these fallow airwaves would need some form of intelligence in order to avoid interfering with a licensed channel.

In 2003, under Chairman Powell, the FCC initiated a rulemaking (Docket 04-186) to allow a new generation of unlicensed wireless devices to use the unused TV channels within channels 2-to-51. The FCC recognized that new “smart radio” technologies would allow the unused TV channels to be used for broadband wireless services without interfering with local TV stations operating on nearby licensed channels. It also recognized that reallocating the unused broadcast spectrum would facilitate rural broadband Internet access, pervasive communications within the home and workplace, and supplemental public safety services. High-tech companies, wireless Internet service providers and consumer groups were highly supportive of this so-called “TV white spaces” rulemaking. Broadcasters, including their vendors, were opposed.

Despite significant broadcast industry opposition, on October 26, 2005, the House Commerce Committee passed an amendment (the “TV white spaces amendment”) to its DTV legislation calling on the FCC to finish its TV white spaces rulemaking. However, just before the final bill came up for a vote in the entire House on December 19, 2005, this provision was stripped from the bill on procedural grounds. Separate legislation to deal with non-budget issues associated with the DTV transition, of which digital must-carry has gotten the most coverage in the press, is expected to be introduced shortly. This myth-fact sheet responds to the broadcast industry’s ongoing arguments to Congress opposing the completion of the FCC’s TV white spaces rulemaking.