Veteran engineer Sherrod Munday shares interesting data about the C Band registration process.

“Of the 7,145 new C Band satellite downlink sites registered since the April 19, 2018 freeze, 2,858 of those registrations since Sept. 13 (in week 37) were from one organization, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints locations,” he tells us. “The remaining ~300 new registrations per week is still quite high as the October 17, 2018 deadline for filing nears.”

Munday is vice president of engineering for the Sky Angel television network. The image below shows the trend line by week.

Munday downloaded the raw data from the FCC’s IBFS department and broke the data down into relevant time windows to map and chart it. The full IBFS data set contains the business names and other data for each site and revealed that the LDS had bulk-registered many sites in a short period of time.

[Read: Deadline For Registering C-Band Downlink Fast Approaching]

“Note that the number of ‘sites’ registered is far larger than the number of registrations filed because the FCC allows multiple sites to be registered on a single form,” he continued. “In the case of the LDS church, they registered ~50 sites per registration form. That’s still a lot of registrations. … My desire is to get the map out there so the 5G guys, broadcasters, and other industry-related folks can see the scope of the situation.”

Among the many familiar names that show up with numerous entries in the registrant list are Nexstar Broadcasting, Buford Satellite, Comcast Cable, Fox Broadcasting, Gray Television, iHeartMedia, Cumulus, Bible Broadcasting Network, Moody Bible Institute and New Hampshire Public Radio.

(He adds that another source counts 7,111 new sites, a difference he attributes to 34 sites that registered with the incorrect frequency range.)

This second image shows the proliferation of registrations by period of time.

The FCC wants unregistered users of C Band earth stations to register by Oct. 17, to receive future consideration and possible protection from interference. Numerous broadcast and technical organizations have urged users, including broadcast stations and ownership groups, to register.

Radio and TV broadcasters, as well as cable providers, use C Band satellite systems for reliable distribution of programming content. Some estimates place the number of C Band downlink sites in the United States at more than 27,000, and demand for new facilities shows no signs of letting up. But the FCC’s consideration of sharing that spectrum for broadband companies puts existing users at risk. Munday notes that SES, Intelsat, Telesat and Eutelsat formed an alliance to work with earth station operations to clear out spectrum for 5G

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Satellite service provider SES says it will reimburse broadcasters for the cost of registering C Band receive antennas with the FCC.

Although the details of how to apply for the SES reimbursement of the registration fee have not yet been formalized, a company spokesman confirmed July 31 that the funds would be made available to both radio and TV broadcasters seeking to register their antennas.

[Read: FCC Advances Goal of Opening C-Band, Enhances EAS Testing]

The FCC is moving to open the 3.7–4.2GHz band for shared use with wireless operators. The agency opened a window for C Band operators with existing fixed satellite service Earth stations to register their antennas to reduce the likelihood of harmful interference being created in the band.

The FCC may choose to take into account only licensed or registered Earth stations for interference protection for the new service in the band, SES said.

The cost of registering an earth station has been reduced from $1,100 to $435. According to the SES spokesman, information about how to apply for reimbursement of the fee will be made available.

In the meantime, the company has made FCC Form 312 Main Form used to register available on its website.

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FCC chair Ajit Pai has named Babette Boliek the agency's chief economist.

Boliek, a law professor and the associate dean of faculty research at Pepperdine University School of Law, succeeds Jerry Ellig, who is heading back to academia.

Her writings include several law journal articles challenging the FCC's 2015 Open Internet Order,which the Pai FCC has rolled back using some similar arguments.

The chief economist is the FCC chair's principal economic adviser and is usually detailed from a college or university.

Pai has been pushing for more economic cost-benefit analysis of regulation.

"Adding an extraordinarily talented, well-respected expert like Dr. Boliek to our team will help us continue to make well-informed decisions that reflect basic principles of economics as well as the rule of law," said Pai of the new appointment.

Boliek's academic research subjects have included internet regulation, competition, antitrust, privacy and mobile telecom, while she has taught antitrust and communications law as well as corporate and contract law.

Pai said Boliek's combination of law and economics experience will be an asset as the FCC looks "to better integrate economic analysis factors into many aspects of the agency’s work, from closing the digital divide to merger review."

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WASHINGTON — A new report from a working group of the FCC’s Communications Security, Reliability and Interoperability Council (CSRIC) lays out a new vision for alerting the public in times of emergency and explores how the new ATSC 3.0 television standard can play a major role.

“The ATSC 3.0 (AKA Next Gen TV) standard holds the potential to not only vastly improve the broadcast television viewing experience and expand programming opportunities, but also enhance emergency communications capabilities and create new operational capabilities for broadcast stations,” it says.

The report, “Comprehensive Re-imagining of Emergency Alerting,” identifies three ways the Next Gen TV standard supports distribution of emergency information, including EAS support, advanced emergency services, such as Advanced Emergency Alerting (AEA), and CAP (Common Alerting Protocol) relay via 3.0’s native IP transport capability.

[Read: Public TV Raises Concern Over Possible WEA Enhancement]

The standard’s support for advanced emergency information services offers “a powerful tool” to target any type of emergency information beyond typical emergency alerts to TV viewers. “This is an informational service capable of conveying a broad range of urgent information bulletins and updates to targeted audiences,” the report says.

When it comes to Advanced Emergency Alerting, 3.0 offers broadcasters a way to reach fixed, mobile and portable consumer devices with audience-targeted messages, alerts flexible enough for nearly any form of emergency information, location-targeted alerts, support for multimedia content such as graphics, photos, maps and video, alert updates, multilingual messaging and a wake-up signal to awaken receivers in standby or sleep mode, it says.

The report notes that 3.0 deployment is voluntary and that the working group expects EAS “to continue to provide its essential functions for national and local public alert and warning.” It envisions 3.0-based alerting as “a value-added function from television broadcasters.”

Among the other topics covered in the document is the role PBS and local public television stations play in helping to protect communities by datacasting to deliver information to individuals and first responders.

The report lays out the main features of PBS-WARN, which takes advantage of the nationwide public TV interconnection system to provide for a nationwide emergency alerting network that serves as a redundant backup path for the Wireless Emergency Alerts (WEA) C interface, which is technologically diverse from the Commercial Mobile Service Provider’s primary WEA gateway.

The document describes various instances of public broadcasters partnering with first responders in different locales to enable responders to send information and video via datacasts in emergency situations. Instances noted in the report include OEAS Public Alertnet with ties to all eight Ohio public TV licenses and their 12 stations, as well as other examples in Alabama, Maine, Minnesota, Nevada and Texas.

The working group’s report notes public TV stations choosing to deploy Next Gen TV will be able to provide even more robust emergency alert and communications service to first responders and the public. For example, 3.0 will allow them to operate more efficiently in terms of TV bandwidth usage, which could allow additional Common Alert Protocol feeds of national, regional and statewide data pertaining to alerts.

“Because PBS has already implemented an intersection of traditional broadcast and cellular technologies through the nationwide PBS-WARN system, we believe that public media has shown itself [to] be an ideal vehicle for projects which explore alerting and the intersection of the next generations of traditional broadcast (ATSC 3.0) and Cellular Mobile Service (5G),” says the report.

America’s Public Television Stations (APTS) issued a statement July 19 lauding the report. “The extraordinary technological achievement of ATSC 3 will enhance public safety communications and interoperability capabilities for law enforcement. Public television is already experimenting with the new services this broadcast standard makes possible,” says Patrick Butler, APTS president and CEO.

The report is available on the FCC website.

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The FCC will vote at its July public meeting on a proposal to make more "intensive" use of 500 MHz of midband spectrum in the 3.7–4.2 GHz (C Band).

That is according to FCC Chairman Ajit Pai, who announced the planned vote at the Wireless Infrastructure Association’s Connect Expo in Charlotte, N.C., May 23.

Cable operators use that band for thousands of receive-only earth stations.

That comes after the FCC earlier this month asked for input on how to repurpose C Band spectrum, seeking comment on a report it must prepare for Congress, mandated by the Making Opportunities for Broadband Investment and Limiting Excessive and Needless Obstacles to Wireless Act (Mobile Now Act).

"I’ve got some good news to report on the mid-band front," Pai told the WIA audience. "Last year, the FCC agreed to explore repurposing more midband spectrum, including the 3.7 to 4.2 GHz band, commonly called the 'C Band.' We have done a lot of work on this issue in the time since — enough so that I’m pleased to announce today that at the FCC’s July meeting, I intend to put up for a vote a proposal to make more intensive use of that 500 MHz of spectrum, including seeking additional input on making it available for commercial terrestrial use."

The chairman also said that, "when it comes to low-band spectrum," the post-incentive auction transition process for that 600 MHz spectrum is going "very well indeed." That includes the biggest auction winner, T-Mobile, already using its spectrum — it has paid some broadcasters who gave up spectrum in the auction to move off early — to provide mobile broadband in 28 states.

In August 2017, the FCC launched a notice of inquiry into 'next-generation' opportunities for use of "midband spectrum" — seeking to explore "all potential options to meet the ever-increasing demands" for wireless bandwidth. The NOI sought comment on three specific mid-range bands (3.7–4.2 GHz, as well as 5.925–6.425 GHz, and 6.425–7.125 GHz).

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It may be time for the corkboard to come down.

The Federal Communications Commission is looking into whether it should eliminate rules that require broadcasters to post broadcast licenses and other station info in specific locations in its facility. At its monthly Open Meeting on May 10, the commission launched a proceeding to consider eliminating various rules that require the maintenance and posting of such details. 

Harken back 88 years ago; that was when the commission originally adopted broadcast license posting rules. Over time, these rules were expanded to include new ways of posting information. Since the majority of information contained on these licenses is now available in the commission’s electronic databases, the commission is asking through a notice of proposed rulemaking whether it’s necessary for broadcast licenses and related authorizations to continue to be physically posted.

“How is this rule serving the public?” asked Commissioner Michael O’Rielly, adding that many times broadcaster licenses and authorizations are posted out of public view due to the need to secure premises and promote safety. “I truly believe that this proceeding will confirm that this rule should be set into an appropriate waste bin.”

[Read: FCC Eliminates Hard Copy Rules]

Perhaps the motivation of the Federal Radio Commission (the predecessor to the FCC) in 1930 was to ensure that station authorizations, ownership and contact information would be readily available to the commission and the public, said FCC Chairman Ajit Pai said. “But today, the vast majority of this information is easily accessible via the commission’s electronic databases,” he said. “Moreover, in some cases, you can’t see posted licenses even if you want to; the transmitter sites at which stations are required to post them aren’t physically accessible to or viewable by the public.

“As a result, I’m skeptical that our license posting rules currently serve any useful purpose, and look forward to reviewing comments from stakeholders discussing whether they should be eliminated,” Pai said.

Comments on the notice can be left in the FCC ECFS database using Media Bureau Docket 17-105 or 18-121.

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The Federal Communications Commission’s Michael O’Rielly dug deep in the weeds of policy discussion in a speech with the American Enterprise Institute, saying some of the most dissimilar policy issues in place at the FCC can actually be tied together with a unifying message: that the FCC is committed to economic freedom, fiscal constraint and simplifying unnecessarily complicated process issues.

O’Rielly said that one of his key priorities since he arrived as a commissioner in 2013 has been advancing FCC process reforms, such as working to ensure more transparency for FCC rulemakings and orders that are coming up for a vote.

Despite concerns from former FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler, O’Rielly said, there were no doomsday scenarios once now-Chairman Ajit Pai moved to make commission meeting items publically available before a vote was made. This step is now taken before every FCC Open Meeting. “In fact, transparency has resulted in more informative discussions, fewer unnecessary meetings, and, overall, a better work product,” O’Rielly said. “Who would have guessed it?”

At the AEI gathering on April 19, O’Rielly suggested that the commission begin to apply this type of process reform to other areas, including those items that are on the commission’s circulation list. By doing so, the commission avoids creating a secretive, potentially abusive path ripe for considering documents of any length and importance, he said.

[Read: FCC’s O’Rielly: Thank Goodness for Broadcasters]

He also touched on the need to review the commission’s Kid Vid children’s programming rules, which require broadcasters to provide educational and informational programming to children as part of their broadcast license renewal process. Those rules require broadcasters to regularly schedule and air three hours of informational and educational programming for children that is at least 30 minutes in length between the hours of 7 a.m. to 10 p.m.

Unfortunately, these well-intentioned rules have not worked to deliver high-quality content for children, O’Rielly said. “As is often the case when government tries to create a market, this endeavor failed spectacularly,” he said. Data suggests a 99% decline in children viewership (ages 2 to 11) on Saturday mornings. “That’s an important segment of children that are simply not watching the commission’s mandated Kid Vid programming,” he said. Instead, some are turning to online sites like YouTube, an unregulated platform “that may deliver high-quality programming to children, or, may label content as children’s programming but instead offer something quite different,” he said. “I have seen this firsthand as a father of a two- year-old.”

While the market the government sought to create with its Kid Vid rules never took off, other markets were killed in the process, O’Rielly said. He pointed to the demise of short-form programming like “School House Rock” and programming that was not regularly scheduled like “Afterschool Specials” that were oftentimes popular with children. “Once the FCC determined that this would not count towards the broadcaster’s ‘core programming’ requirement, interest in producing such shows ceased,” he said.

O’Rielly said the commission plans to set up a rulemaking this summer that will explore ways to “breathe flexibility into the Kid Vid rules.” This rulemaking should eliminate the elements of those rules that have had unintended consequences, would streamline existing reporting requirements, and will consider the needs of those U.S. households who still receive their programing strictly over the air, he said.

“I am hopeful that throughout this process more people will weigh in on the costs and benefits of the commission’s Kid Vid requirements, so we can build a robust record on this topic,” he said.

O’Rielly touted other ongoing changes at the commission, including the creation of the Office of Economics and Analytics (OEA). This office is designed to bring a more effective cost-benefit analysis discussion to items being considered by the commission. Once established, the office will undertake what O’Rielly called a rigorous, economically grounded cost-benefit analysis for any rulemaking that could have an annual effect on the economy of $100 million or more.

The commission also adopted a rule that requires the OEA to sign off on an item prior to its release to the public. Up next: a rulemaking that will propose that OEA follow the set of guidelines standardized by the Office of Management and Budget when it comes to handling the way benefits and costs are measured and reported across agencies.

All these steps are designed to improve the interworking of the agency, O’Rielly said. “Overall, my ultimate goal remains: to leave the commission in a better procedural place than I found it,” he said.

The commissioner also touched on advancing 5G services and budgeting for the universal service fund.

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The commission has been on a tear of revising or eliminating rules that it considers outdated. Now here comes another, this time affecting cable operators.

The FCC wants to kill a rule that requires cable operators to maintain, at their local office, a listing of channels that each system delivers to subscribers. Noting that this dates to 1972, it tentatively concluded that the requirement is no longer necessary or even useful because channel lineup information is “readily available” from websites, on-screen program guides and paper guides. All five commissioners supported the notice of proposed rulemaking.

Chairman Ajit Pai called it “bizarre” that the FCC still has this rule in the internet age.

“The FCC’s channel-lineup rules might have made sense back when they were adopted in 1972,” he wrote in a statement. “I say ‘might’ because the commission didn’t actually explain back then why it thought that these regulations were necessary. As the notice surmises, perhaps the intent was to help the agency verify compliance with certain technical performance standards that no longer exist. Or perhaps it thought that viewers might well visit a cable operator’s local office to track down Meathead from ‘All in the Family,’” which Pai reminded readers was one of the most-watched television programs in America then.

[Read: FCC Eliminates Hard Copy Rules]

But given all the readily available information in 2018, Pai continued, “Archie Bunker might very well deem a meathead anyone who actually visited a cable operator’s local office to view channel lineup information.”

The notice of proposed rulemaking also asks for input on what the channel lineup requirements for small cable operators should be if the rule is eliminated. And it invites comments on whether the FCC should also eliminate a requirement that certain cable operators make channel lineup available via online public inspection file or instead require them to put information on their websites.

For filing comments, use Media Bureau docket numbers 18-92 and 17-105.