According to a Sept. 22 SBE filing with the commission, the FCC should not grant waivers to rules preventing a new cable TV relay service (CARS) from delivering programming to truckers.
At issue is whether or not the commission should grant the waivers to allow Clarity Media Systems to operate a CARS network known as “Trucker TV” with base stations operating in the 2025MHz to 2110MHz TV BAS band. The commercial service is intended to deliver video programming to truckers on a national basis.
The SBE filing laid out 10 reasons why the waivers should not be granted, some of which include:
- Clarity in effect is seeking a new use for the spectrum, which would require a rulemaking not rule waivers;
- The Communications Act would require spectrum auctions to award the frequency for such use, if a commercial “Trucker TV” service were created;
- Clarity uses circular logic to claim eligibility for a CARS license;
- Clarity’s assertion that truckers are underserved in terms or access to television programming is incorrect.
The SBE told the commission that it should dismiss the 10 CARS applications Clarity has filed with prejudice. “The rule waivers requested in those applications are so far reaching and significant as to constitute a new radio service,” the filing said.
The SBE filing also argued that contrary to Clarity’s assertion, a test of the service (WD2XPK) did not prove it to be free from producing interference to co-channel TV BAS operations. Clarity’s claim that no interference was caused “is inaccurate, if not intentionally misleading, since it used the wrong interference metric and involved analog BAS signals,” the filing said.
Separately, the MSTV and NAB filed a joint petition with the commission asking the FCC to reject granting Clarity a CARS license. To do so “would turn the commission’s CARS rules on their head and would materially harm local broadcast stations’ critical ENG operations, to the detriment of the viewing public,” the joint filing said.
The Clarity system “would harm ENG operations, and this harm would occur at a critical point in the transition of digital BAS,” it said. The MSTV/NAB filing told the commission that Clarity has other “lawful, nonharmful options available.”
For more information visit www.sbe.org and www.mstv.org.
