The FCC needs to take a close look at broadcast TV spectrum and whether it can be reallocated to meet the growing needs of wireless carriers, Commissioner Meredith Baker said in an interview for C-SPAN's The Communicators to air Saturday. But Baker said other spectrum, including DOD's, also must be looked at closely. "All ideas should be on the table," she said. "Broadcasters actually have 294 MHz of spectrum and what we're talking about for these future networks is we're going to need in the range of 800 MHz. It's not the golden egg. I think it might be part of the solution." nnChairman Julius Genachowski said the FCC is just starting to deal with the "spectrum challenge," and there are many ideas how to do it. Asked Friday by a C-SPAN interviewer about repurposing frequencies used for broadcasting, Genachowski said, "We haven't said anything about which ideas are the best." Too little additional spectrum is "coming on line" for mobile broadband from the 700 MHz auction, because demand is rising many times faster than supply, he said. "We're going to need to do some long-range planning for the country here," Genachowski said. "There are no easy pickings on the spectrum chart," where government and business holdings must be studied, and there are "hard choices to make."
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