Apple's comments to Markey Committee re HR3636

[David Farber <farber () central cis upenn edu>]

Honorable Edward Markey
March 16, 1994
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March 16, 1994




Honorable Congressman Edward J. Markey
United States House of Representatives
2133 Rayburn House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515-2107
Dear Congressman Markey:


You have raised a number of important issues with regard to the
substitute amendment to H.R. 3636, SEC. 203, Broadcast Spectrum Flexibility.
On behalf of Apple Computer, I would like to make the following
observations.


As you are well aware, the interests of computer companies,
information providers, telecommunications entities, and broadcasters are
converging. Legislative and regulatory decisions will determine both the role
of industry participants and the path of technological development. Some of
the most important of those decisions relate to the uses to which the radio
spectrum will be put, the role of radio-based technologies in the national
information infrastructure, and the terms under which industries and users
needing spectrum will gain access to that spectrum.


Consideration of alternative uses of broadcast-TV spectrum is, in this
regard, a timely inquiry. The inquiry could result in the rededication of some
of broadcastingUs vast spectrum resources to new and emerging technologies,
while retaining the balance for the valuable purposes for which broadcast
spectrum allocations were first made.


You, the Congress, the Administration, and the FCC have made
spectrum allocation for new technologies a high-priority issue. For example:


%       200 MHz will be reallocated from the public sector to the private
sector, over the next decade, in compliance with the Omnibus
Budget Reconciliation Act of 1993, Title VI. The NTIA has
identified possible frequencies, and release of the first 50 MHz
appears imminent.


%       The FCC has reallocated 220 MHz  from existing fixed
microwave uses to Remerging technologiesS and 120 MHz of that
will soon be auctioned to enable implementation of new
families of PCS.


%       Of the 220 MHz referred to above, 40 MHz has been allocated for
unlicensed PCS, including, with your support, for the Data-PCS
capability so eagerly sought by the computer industry.  (The
obstacles involved in making that band available, however,
remain of great concern.)


Simultaneously, technical advances in modulation schemes,
geographic frequency reuse and data compression are endowing each
megahertz of spectrum with more information-carrying capacity. Taken
together, the prospects of more spectrum, and better ways of using it, are rich
indeed. The present issue regarding the future of the broadcast TV spectrum,
therefore, should be viewed in the broader context of the critical, albeit
sometimes painful, effort to assure a distribution of spectrum resources that
best reflects societal needs and takes account of new technologies.
In this regard, development of the broadcast TV spectrum or other
spectrum from the growing pool of bandwidth should include a generous
provision for unlicensed applications such as Data-PCS, which involves
wireless local area high-speed communications among people using
computing devices, without the burdens of usage-sensitive airtime charges.
Spectrum for such technologies is the sine qua non for universal access to the
NII gateways that will be provided by carriers, as well as for in-premises
communications in businesses, schools, and health-care facilities.
Unfortunately, the spectrum allocated to Data-PCS in the FCCUs PCS
proceeding is encumbered with existing microwave operations and, therefore,
does not fully meet the computer industryUs needs.


Similarly, several of the directions now being taken in HDTV in the
present FCC ACATS process merit review. For example, transition from
NTSC to HDTV could be made more rapid and painless if embedded NTSC
hierarchical encoding technology were added to the currently proposed
HDTV system. Likewise, there are great disadvantages for making HDTV
compatibility with computers merely an RoptionS for broadcasters, as could
result from the present FCC ACATS process. The ability of HDTV to deliver
legible text, maps, diagrams and other graphics will, in itself, represent an
epochal improvement over todayUs NTSC television, but its value will be
limited unless HDTV and computers speak the same technical dialect.
Finally, the selection of the ATV system should be re-oriented to take into
account the potential usefulness of ATV for the NII applications such as
health care, education, library access, support of government, and enhanced
electronic commerce.


We believe the computer industryUs spectrum needs and its concerns
about HDTV should be addressed within a comprehensive examination of
new spectrum usage and opportunities. Issues regarding the convergence of
the spectrum needs of broadcasters, the computer industry, and other
proponents of new, spectrum-based technologies would be an appropriate
topic of separate hearings before your sub-committee in which Apple would
pleased to participate.


Sincerely yours,


James M. Burger, Esquire
Director, Government Law