Saturday, Sept. 13, the Washington, D.C., market became the largest market yet to complete the BAS (2 GHz) transfer.
A Sprint spokesman confirmed that the Washington (DMA No. 9) and Baltimore (DMA No. 26) markets were scheduled to make the switch.
The BAS transfer is a market-by-market transfer of Broadcast Auxiliary Services from analog channels to smaller, digital channels around 2 GHz.
Washington alone is the largest market yet to complete the transition. Houston (DMA No. 10), Phoenix (DMA No. 12) and Tampa-St. Petersburg (DMA No. 14) have also switched, according to Sprint data.
Washington, Baltimore and Houston were all among 24 markets Sprint identified Aug. 1 as in an accelerated transition process to meet the needs of new spectrum users.
Sprint is implementing the new services and paying costs related to broadcasters’ migration of the BAS gear to the new channels.
