Reservation of Vacant TV Channels for White Space Devices and Wireless Mics

Despite strong opposition by the broadcast industry, the FCC decided in early August to keep at least one TV channel in the post-auction repacked TV spectrum vacant for white space devices and wireless microphones.

The three Democratic FCC Commissioners went a step further, tentatively concluding that a second TV channel should be preserved to mitigate the potential impact on such devices in select markets around the country where a repacked TV station is assigned to the “duplex gap” or guard band between the paired broadband uplink and downlink frequencies.

The FCC has asked for comments on this proposal by September 30, 2015, with reply comments by October 30, 2015.