JoeTrippi.com

In a letter to the Federal Communications Commission, the chief executives of the Consumer Electronics Association and the Cellular Telecommunications Industry Association urged the FCC to review how digital TV airwaves are being used as directed by the Telecommunications Act of 1996. This could lead to a reapportioning of digital airwaves to accommodate growing use of mobile broadband. The L.A. Times has more:

According to the CEA-CTIA letter:

“This spectrum is uniquely suited for mobile broadband applications, devices and services –it has highly favorable propagation characteristics and is directly adjacent to the 700 and 800 MHz spectrum utilized by the commercial wireless industry. We therefore urge the commission to take immediate action to initiate the congressionally-mandated evaluation of broadcast television spectrum usage.”

The DTV channels are extremely valuable, and broadcasters have tried for several years to find ways to use them for more than just high-definition TV signals — for example, by transmitting a version of their programs that’s customized for mobile devices, or leasing part of their channel to data service providers. They’ve also fiercely resisted the high-tech industry’s push to allow unlicensed uses of empty TV channels — the so-called white spaces — in areas where it might interfere with local broadcasts. (The FCC sided with the tech firms last year, but the decision is under appeal.) But the FCC is under orders from Congress to develop a national plan for increasing the supply of broadband connectivity, and Chairman Julius Genachowski has said that the demand for wireless broadband will soon be an order of magnitude greater than the supply (a situation that Genachowski has called the “looming spectrum crisis”). So the commission may be unusually receptive to the idea of forcing TV stations to share more of their spectrum wealth.

Read more from the L.A. Times.