The FCC issued a Proposed Notice of Rulemaking on August 21, 2008 that proposes prohibiting the operation and import, sale or shipment of low power auxiliary stations, including wireless microphones, that operate in the 700MHz band after the end of the digital television (DTV) transition on February 17, 2009. The agency states, “These actions would ensure that low power auxiliary operations do not cause harmful interference to new public safety and commercial wireless services in the band.”
The full text of the FCC’s proposal can be downloaded as a Microsoft Word document or as an Acrobat PDF document.
There is a 30-day comment period and a 45-day reply-to-comment period.
In response to this proposal, Sennheiser USA RF engineer Joe Ciaudelli states: “I encourage the readers of Mix magazine to submit their comments [to the FCC]. Banning wireless mics in the 700 MHz band, 698–806 MHz specifically, makes it vital to protect the remaining UHF frequencies from being flooded by the introduction white space devices. U.S. news and entertainment content is the best in the world and one of our highest valued exports. The necessity to maintain news and entertainment production quality is essential to the high standard of TV, radio, film and live entertainment that entire population has come to expect. This can only be ensured if there is sufficient usable spectrum.”
News and other information about the Federal Communications Commission is available at www.fcc.gov.
