Tuesday, September 25, 2001

FCC Decides Not to Reassign Colleges' Broadcast Frequencies By GOLDIE BLUMENSTYK Washington The Federal Communications Commission has made it official. The agency announced Monday that it would not oust educational broadcasters from their radio spectrum to make way for Web-surfing cell phones and other new mobile devices. The decision, which had been rumored since July, is a victory for colleges, schools, churches, and other nonprofit organizations that use the airwaves for distance-education courses and other purposes. For about a year, educators have been concerned that they would lose their spectrum because it was one of several sets of frequencies identified by the Clinton administration to be studied for potential use by emerging new technologies known as Third Generation mobile devices. But in its ruling Monday, the FCC declared it "would not be cost-effective or desirable" to move educators and others from their spectrum. The agency also said disrupting the service -- known as Instructional Television Fixed Service -- "would be detrimental to the public interest." Ken Salomon, a lawyer in Washington who represents educational institutions with licenses to use the spectrum, said colleges and others "should be very pleased." Since the 1960s, colleges have used the spectrum for educational purposes. In some cases, where institutions haven't needed all the frequencies they have under license, they've leased their excess capacity to other companies to earn extra money. In the late 1980s, colleges leased their surplus frequencies to companies that were trying to offer television channels over "wireless cable" systems. More recently, in the wake of the decline of that industry, some colleges are working with companies like Sprint and WorldCom, which hope to use the excess capacity to provide high-speed Internet connections. The ruling not only ensures that existing programming won't be disrupted, it also clears the way for colleges to pursue those negotiations with the companies, and speed the rollout of the new Internet services. "This removes a huge barrier," said Patrick J. Gossman, chairman of the National ITFS Association and director of university television at Wayne State University. "With that cloud of uncertainty hanging over the spectrum, it was difficult to move forward." The ruling also left the door open for colleges and others to work with Third Generation companies and others who might want to find ways to use some of the excess educational spectrum for their products. But Mr. Salomon said he expected few such deals to materialize, because the technical issues are difficult to surmount. Meanwhile, the FCC is expected to continue studying other locations on the radio spectrum, including a band used by the Department of Defense and several others recently identified, for Third Generation devices. "There's a lot of spectrum still in play," said Mr. Salomon. "It's just that ours isn't." Background articles from The Chronicle: Educators Are Unlikely to Lose Their Broadcast Frequencies (7/13/2001) Cell-Phone Technology Threatens to Devour Distance-Education Bandwidth (1/19/2001) Easy-to-print version E-mail this article

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