On behalf of Public Interest Spectrum Coalition, Media Access Project Files Roadmap to Protect New Public Safety and Commercial Wireless Services From Unauthorized Use of Wireless Microphones; Asks for Amnesty for Broadway, Churches, and Others
Posted: Wednesday July 16, 2008
On behalf of Public Interest Spectrum Coalition, Media Access Project Files Roadmap to Protect New Public Safety and Commercial Wireless Services From Unauthorized Use of Wireless Microphones; Asks for Amnesty for Broadway, Churches, and Other Unauthorized Users, Offers “Pathway to Authorization” for Current Illegal Users, and Proposes That Shure and Other Wireless Microphone Manufacturers Bear Cost of Interference Protection.
Press Release:
WIRELESS MICROPHONES THREATEN NEW PUBLIC SAFETY SERVICES AND NEW COMMERCIAL SERVICES.
Public Interest Spectrum Coalition (PISC) proposes plan to protect public safety, legalize Broadway wireless microphones.
Today, the Public Interest Spectrum Coalition (PISC) submitted a plan to the Federal Communication Commission (FCC) to resolve the danger to the new wireless public safety services and commercial wireless services that will operate on UHF Channels 52-69 beginning February 17, 2009. These television channels will be returned by broadcasters after the transition from analog to digital television concludes. The FCC has already distributed two of the four channels to public safety for new voice systems, and has allocated two more channels for a national interoperable public safety data service in compliance with the recommendation of the 9/11 Commission. The other channels were auctioned for commercial use earlier this year for $19 billion – the most profitable auction in FCC history.
These new public safety and commercial systems are threatened by the illegal and deceptive marketing practices of Shure, Inc. and other wireless microphone manufacturers. Wireless microphones operate on empty broadcast channels – including channels 52-69. Although FCC rules restrict wireless microphones to licensed operators engaged in production of broadcast, cable or motion picture programming, Shure and others have engaged in extensive marketing to churches, theater groups, business centers, and other unauthorized users. In violation of FCC rules, manufacturers persuaded unauthorized users to buy expensive wireless microphones that manufacturers had no right to sell and the public has no right to use. As a result, somewhere between 500,000 and 1 million unauthorized wireless microphone systems operate on UHF Channels 52-69 – creating pools of potential interference that could undermine the reliability of these new public safety and commercial wireless systems.
Shure and the other manufacturers have relied on the widespread use of wireless microphones to shield them from any enforcement action – despite the risk of harmful interference with new public safety systems. Today, the Public Interest Spectrum Coalition (PISC) proposes a plan that will protect public safety and new commercial wireless systems while continuing to allow Broadway theaters, churches, and other currently unauthorized users to use wireless microphones – at no cost to the unauthorized users, public safety, or taxpayers.
The Public Interest Spectrum Coalition (PISC) has proposed that the FCC:
a) Grant a general amnesty to unauthorized users, themselves the victims of Shure and other manufacturers illegal marketing practices, and authorize the public to use wireless microphones below UHF Channel 52 on a non-interfering basis; (b) immediately order that manufacturers cease manufacture, marketing, and sale of wireless microphones that operate on channels 52-69; © require that Shure and other wireless microphone manufacturers replace equipment that operates on Channels 52-69 with equipment that will only operate on UHF Channels 51 or below. The plan also requires authorized users, such as ESPN and the NFL, to accept “secondary” status to public safety and phase out use of Channels 52-69 over time.
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Contact:
Harold Feld
Senior Vice President
Media Access Project
(202) 454 – 5684
Files:
Complaint
WirelessMicsExhibitA.pdf
WirelessMicsExhibitsB-G.pdf
WirelessMicsExhibitsH-J.pdf
WirelessMicsExhibitK
WirelessMicsExhibitL.pdf
WirelessMicsExhibitM.pdf
WirelessMicsExhibitsN-R.pdf
WirelessMicsExhibit S.pdf