The FCC has “quietly revealed” the methodology it will use for repacking television channels after upcoming spectrum auctions, reports TV Technology. The agency just released a new version of its OET-69 software, called TVStudy, which will perform interference analyses for repacking. OET-69 is based on the Longley-Rice signal propagation model — also known as the irregular terrain model — which TV Technology refers to as “an analog-era methodology that yielded shortcomings when applied after the DTV transition.”
And according to Broadcasting & Cable, the National Association of Broadcasters this week expressed concern to the FCC over a proposed change to the Longley-Rice model, which the FCC may update to reflect 2010 Census population data. The NAB said that change at this point could “create instability in the [auction] process that can only serve to undermine the auction that NAB and other industry players are working extremely hard to make work as Congress intended.”