Finishing the TV white spaces proceeding has proved to be a bit of a challenge for the Federal Communications Commission.  After more than two years from its adoption of initial rules, the FCC released the second TV white spaces order on September 23, 2010.  The rules recently took effect on January 5, 2011, raising hope that new services would soon follow.  Unfortunately, the FCC still needs to add a few coats of paint to its white spaces rules before we see wide-scale commercial broadband deployments, although the number of action items has dwindled.

      "[T]he rules effectively preclude fixed white space operations in large portions of the country."

     At the top of the list: a few rules are subject to reconsideration.  Most prominently, a consortium of trade associations, database administrator applicants and equipment manufacturers led by the Wireless Internet Service Providers Association (“WISPA”), a Rini Coran, PC client, asked the FCC to relax its tower height and out-of-band emission rules for fixed white space devices.  In the September 2010 order, the FCC limited the maximum height of tower sites to 76 meters above average terrain (HAAT).  Together with the 30-meter tower height limit adopted in November 2008, the rules effectively preclude fixed white space operations in large portions of the country.  As shown in the maps provided by Comsearch at Appendices B and D in WISPA's FCC filing, the areas affected by the height restrictions are, not surprisingly, rural, hilly and mountainous areas of the country where white space spectrum could otherwise be used to provide much-needed broadband service – indeed, the intended targets of white space services.

            The petitioners asked the FCC to adopt a 250-meter HAAT limit while also increasing the keep-out zones for co-channel and adjacent-channel TV stations to ensure that there would be no increase in harmful interference to broadcasters.       

            The September order also tightened the spectral mask for adjacent channels, limiting the amount of usable spectrum and adding cost to equipment and deployment.  Led by Motorola, petitioners asked the FCC to relax the emission mask to reduce costs and promote spectral efficiency, while increasing the adjacent-channel keep-out zones to protect incumbent TV stations. 

             Also on the white spaces wish list: the FCC still has not released its long-awaited order designating geo-location database administrators and establishing final database governance rules.  Long anticipated since the release of the second TV white spaces order, the would-be administrators still have no marching orders.  No doubt, the FCC’s Office of Engineering and Technology has been pre-occupied with net neutrality and a spate of other important orders. The reality is that the FCC can only authorize experimental operations until the database administrators are selected and ready.  The good news is that OET is expected to issue its order any day now, so hopefully that roadblock soon will be in the rear-view mirror.

             Not far behind is the certification of TV white space equipment.  Because of the need for equipment to have geo-location capabilities that are linked to the databases, the FCC cannot certify equipment until the databases are established and certification procedures finalized.  No word on how long the certification process will take, but hopefully that can be measured in days and weeks and not months.

             Fortunately, the FCC only has a few issues to address in the reconsideration phase, so the proposed changes to the height and emission mask rules likely can be implemented soon.  Even so, once the database administration process is set and equipment is certified, white space deployments can begin right away in those parts of the country where the HAAT and mask issues are not impediments.