FCC Extends Deadline for Public Comments on Incentive Auction
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has extended the “comment” and “reply” deadlines to January 25 and March 12, 2013, respectively, for public comments on the incentive auction process intended to repurpose broadcast television spectrum for mobile broadband use.
The January 25 deadline marks the cut-off for submitting public comments, while the March 12 date marks the cut-off for replying to comments that others have submitted.
The incentive auction has potentially major ramifications for hospitals in the United States, as TV channel 37 is currently designated as half of the radio spectrum available for the Wireless Medical Telemetry Service (WMTS). The repurposing of broadcast television spectrum could result in a reallocation of channel 37.
Regarding the public comment period extension, the FCC says, “We conclude that extension…is warranted to provide commenters with sufficient time to prepare comments and reply comments that fully respond to the complex economic, engineering, and policy issues raised…”
The FCC order announcing the extension is available here.
This fall, the FCC voted 5-0 to approve the Incentive Auction Notice of Proposed Rule-Making (NPRM) during a meeting attended by AAMI staff. However, the FCC commissioners who voted to approve the NPRM expressed a wide range of concerns and asked that stakeholders submit comments on a number of topics. In fact, FCC Commissioner Avit Pai noted that the plan will bring about “the most complicated incentive auction in world history.”
The impetus for the repurposing of broadcast spectrum is the desire to allocate additional spectrum to mobile devices—the use of which has become increasingly prevalent in recent years. During the September meeting, FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski compared the global bandwidth race to the space race.
A reallocation of TV channel 37 would likely have a major impact on the long-term strategies for wireless healthcare for hospitals that operate their WMTS on channel 37. WMTS is used to remotely monitor patient health.
AAMI and ECRI Institute are working with the American Society of Healthcare Engineering (ASHE) on a joint document to help educate the FCC on the implications of any potential change to TV channel 37.
Posted: December 14, 2012