[Federal Register Volume 79, Number 127 (Wednesday, July 2, 2014)]
[Proposed Rules]
[Pages 37705-37706]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2014-15585]
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FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION
47 CFR Parts 1, 27, and 73
[GN Docket No. 12-268; ET Docket No. 13-26; DA 14-677]
Incentive Auction Task Force Seeks Comment on Staff Analysis
Regarding Pairwise Approach To Preserving Population Served
AGENCY: Federal Communications Commission.
ACTION: Proposed rule; request for comments.
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SUMMARY: The FCC's Incentive Auction Task Force (IATF) seeks comment on
the results of a staff analysis on the potential for new aggregate
interference in the repacking process and seeks comment on newly
released repacking constraint data that uses actual channels.
DATES: Comments must be filed on or before July 2, 2014 and reply
comments must be filed on or before July 22, 2014.
ADDRESSES: You may submit comments, identified by GN Docket No. 12-268
and ET Docket No. 13-26, by any of the following methods:
Federal eRulemaking Portal: http://www.regulations.gov.
Follow the instructions for submitting comments.
Federal Communications Commission's Web site: http://www.fcc.gov/cgb/ecfs/. Follow the instructions for submitting comments.
Mail: Filings can be sent by hand or messenger delivery,
by commercial overnight courier, or by first-class or overnight U.S.
Postal Service mail (although the Commission continues to experience
delays in receiving U.S. Postal Service mail). All filings must be
addressed to the Commission's Secretary, Office of the Secretary,
Federal Communications Commission.
People With Disabilities: Contact the FCC to request
reasonable accommodations (accessible format documents, sign language
interpreters, CART, etc.) by email: [email protected] or phone: 202-418-
0530 or TTY: 202-418-0432.
For detailed instructions for submitting comments and additional
information on the rulemaking process, see the SUPPLEMENTARY
INFORMATION section of this document.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Jonathan McCormack, Wireless
Telecommunications Bureau, (202) 418-1065, email:
[email protected].
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: This is a summary of the FCC's document, GN
Docket No. 12-268, ET Docket No. 13-26, DA 14-677 released on June 2,
2014. The full text of this document is available for inspection and
copying during normal business hours in the FCC Reference Center (Room
CY-A257), 445 12th Street SW., Washington, DC 20554. The complete text
of this document also may be purchased from the Commission's copy
contractor, Best Copy and Printing, Inc., 445 12th Street SW., Room CY-
B402, Washington, DC 20554. The full text may also be downloaded at:
www.fcc.gov.
Summary
On June 2, 2014, the IATF released a document that published
updated constraint data based upon actual channels, rather than proxy
channels, to assist interested parties in conducting their own
repacking studies. The document also announced the results of a staff
analysis on the potential for new aggregate interference in the
repacking process using the Commission's adopted approach to preserving
population served. This approach limits allowable station assignments
to those causing 0.5 percent or less new pairwise interference. The
staff analysis compiled 100 repacking scenario studies and found that
on average, approximately one percent of all stations received new
aggregate interference above one percent, and that the vast majority
received less than the 0.5 percent interference constraint.
The data and information released are based on preliminary staff
assumptions necessary for completing the analysis, and are meant to be
illustrative only. The FCC will adopt final decisions regarding the
repacking process at a later date. The document and its appendix relate
only to the repacking process, and specifically to issues commenters
raised regarding the necessity of an aggregate interference cap and the
use of proxy channels when preserving coverage area and population
served. The results of studies in the analysis do not reflect any FCC
assumptions about auction participation or station valuation.
A number of commenters supported using a 0.5 percent pairwise limit
approach for limiting interference in the repacking process, but argued
that the FCC should impose a cap of one percent on allowable aggregate
interference for each station to mitigate the risk that an individual
station in a crowded market could receive significant new interference
when the permitted pairwise interference from multiple stations is
added up.
In response to that argument, FCC staff conducted studies to
calculate potential aggregate interference using the updated constraint
files, which are based on actual channels, versus proxy channels. The
staff analysis shows that approximately one percent of all stations in
simulated channel reassignments received new interference above a one
percent cap, and that the majority of stations received new aggregate
interference well below the pairwise interference limit adopted by the
FCC. The analysis is presented in detail in the appendix, available at
https://apps.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DA-14-677A2.pdf. The
repacking scenarios relate only to the UHF band because the largest
number of stations that could potentially be assigned a new channel
will be in this band. The FCC staff is releasing updated constraint
files based upon actual channels to assist interested parties in
conducting their own repacking studies. The new constraint files are in
the same format as those released in July 2013, and can be found on the
FCC's LEARN Web site under the Repacking Section at: http://fcc.gov/learn. These files are also posted at: http://data.fcc.gov/download/incentive-auctions/Constraint_Files/.
To generate sufficient data from which to draw meaningful results,
FCC staff performed 100 simulations using several variations of an
approach developed for creating simulated sets of stations to be
repacked. The output of each of these simulations was a set of stations
that remain on the air in the UHF band, together with the respective
channel assignments, called a channel plan. Consistent with the FCC's
adopted approach to preserving population
[[Page 37706]]
served, none of the 100 channel plans involves new pairwise
interference of greater than 0.5 percent. For each of these 100 channel
plans, staff examined cell-level data generated by the TVStudy software
to determine the aggregate interference experienced by each station.
The results show that across all simulations, on average approximately
one percent of stations are predicted to receive new aggregate
interference after channel reassignment above the one percent cap
proposed by commenters, while the average new aggregate interference
level was less than 0.2 percent, well below the de minimis constraint
threshold adopted by the FCC. In none of the results did any station
receive new aggregate interference above 2 percent. Details about the
methodology as well as study results can be found in the appendix,
available at https://apps.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DA-14-677A2.pdf.
The analysis pertains only to constraints applied to prevent new
interference under the approach adopted by the FCC, and does not
consider any alternatives that stations may have, including the
opportunity reassigned stations will have to request alternate channels
or expanded facilities on their newly assigned channels. Similarly, the
approach used in these studies does not factor in any post-auction
optimization, which will be run after the completion of bidding in the
auction. Such optimization could consider additional factors, such as
minimizing the number of channel reassignments or the estimated costs
of repacking.
To assist commenters in designing and running their own
simulations, FCC staff is releasing information about how it conducted
the analysis and performed interference calculations. The results are
not exhaustive. The Incentive Auction Task Force invites parties to
conduct their own simulations and interference analyses using these
updated constraint files in conjunction with the publicly available
TVStudy software.
The Incentive Auction Task Force seeks comment from interested
parties on the data and analyses in the document and its appendix. New
constraint files and all current and subsequent releases relating to
the Broadcast Incentive Auction will be posted to and available on the
LEARN Web site at: http://www.fcc.gov/learn.
Federal Communications Commission.
Roger Sherman,
Chief, Wireless Telecommunications Bureau.
[FR Doc. 2014-15585 Filed 7-1-14; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 6712-01-P