THOMAS BEGINS OUTREACH TO BROADCASTERS ON WHITE SPACES
The Office of Engineering & Technology has started its outreach to broadcasters to build support for its proposal that unlicensed devices be permitted to use white spaces between TV channels. OET has offered as a potential inducement that broadcasters be permitted to offer wireless broadband services as a new business line in return for signing off on the proposal.
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“We have spoken to a lot of individual operators as well as manufacturers,” OET Chief Edmond Thomas told us Fri. “We're trying to get some consensus. We plan a lot of meetings over the next year with a lot of people to try to get some traction” for the proposal. Thomas believes that while broadcast groups have denounced the proposal, individual broadcasters may be more supportive. “My hope and prayer is that I can convince the broadcasting industry that it’s a good thing for them and it’s not a bad thing,” he said: “There’s an awful lot of opportunity in there and I'm going to try real hard to convince them that there’s a real opportunity for the American public and the broadcasters.”
“He has a real uphill battle ahead of him,” said a telecom industry source. “My sense is not that many broadcasters think this is a good idea so far. But minds could be changed.” Associations as a group tend to take a harder line on issues than individual companies, a 2nd telecom industry source said. “Almost any trade organization tends to be more reflexively anti-change than companies,” the source said: “They're used to representing their most conservative members.”