Congressional Leaders Urge FCC to Expedite Digital TV License Assignments by April 1997

As you know, during Congress' consideration of the Telecommunications Act of 1996, questions were raised regarding the assignment of a second channel to television broadcasters for the transition to advanced television services. In deference to the concerns raised by the distinguished former Senate Majority Leader and others, several of us asked the Commission to postpone awarding such licenses prior to the end of this Congress in order that the issue may be further examined by the Committees of jurisdiction, The House and Senate Commerce Committee, and for Congress to enact legislation, if it was deemed necessary.

The House and Senate Commerce Committees have held hearings on this issue and the consensus view of the Commerce Committees and the Congress is, in our view, that the Commission should move forward as expeditiously as possible on its current plan to award a second license to television broadcasters for the transition to advanced television services. As required by the Telecommunications Act of 1996, a condition of such license requires that either the additional license or the original license held by the licensee be surrendered to the Commission for reallocation or reassignment pursuant to Commission regulation. Thus, as Congress intended, the licensees' use of 12 megahertz of spectrum would be for temporary simulcast purposes only, and that, in due course, one of the licenses channels will revert to the Commission for assignment by competitive bidding.

We strongly urge the Commission to base its decision regarding the surrender of the license on public acceptance of the new technology as indicated by an adequate customer penetration rate of receiving an ATV signal or the potential loss of reception of a television signal by a substantial, demographically significant portion of the public.

The transition to digital television service cannot begin, however, until the Commission moves forward on several key decisions. Thus, we recommend that the Commission complete all actions necessary to prescribe rules to permit the deployment of over-the-air digital broadcasting no later than April 1, 1997. These rules should include: (1) rules establishing a broadcasting standard for terrestrial, over-the-air digital broadcasting; (2) rules governing the assignment and regulation of terrestrial, over-the-air digital broadcasting including rules implementing Section 336 of the Communications Act; and (3) a table of allotment for terrestrial, over-the-air digital broadcasting.

We would strongly discourage the commission from adopting any spectrum reallocation plans, including the reallocation of spectrum assigned to the upper UHF band, which would impede not only the transition to digital television for TV channels 2 through 69 but would impact the recovery and repacking of the so-called "analog" spectrum. We should note the Commission's own recognition of the technical and economic uncertainties surrounding such proposals during the testimony before Congress (See, Testimony of Robert M. Pepper, Chief, Office of Plans and Policy, FCC, before the House Subcommittee on Telecommunications and Finance, March 21, 1996).

Finally, we would note that the Commission does not need any additional statutory authority to proceed with the assignment of digital licenses. We would, therefore, expect the Commission to proceed with bringing this exciting new technology to the American people without further delay. We appreciate the Commission's cooperation in advance on this issue of the utmost importance.

This letter supersedes previous correspondence with the Commission on this matter, dated January 31, 1996.

Sincerely,

Newt Gingrich
Trent Lott
Thomas. J Bliley, Jr.
John Dingell
Ernest Holllings

cc:
The Honorable James H. Quello
The Honorable Susan Ness
The honorable Rachelle B. Chong