Executives of the Association for Maximum Service Television opposed the FCC's proposed white spaces order at a meeting with legal advisers for the five commissioners, FCC sources said. The group objected to power levels in the proposal being considered by the FCC and recommended how the agency should approve and certify white spaces, said an official who attended the meeting. Walter Liss, president of ABC-owned TV stations, raised a single question for the FCC in a letter sent to the commissioners Friday: "Are you really prepared to authorize millions of unlicensed/portable devices in the TV band based on the hope that none of them will ever break and cause untraceable interference to consumer TV reception?" Robert Reymont, co-chair of the Arizona Emergency Communications Committee, said in a letter to the FCC that the commission's white-spaces proposal raises basic public-safety questions. "In the past year, Arizona people have depended on the Emergency Alert System and local broadcasters to warn them about such life threatening-emergencies as flash floods from broken levees to hazardous materials spills to severe weather to AMBER Alerts," he said. "But if interference from 'white-space devices' degrades television reception our residents and visitors won't be able to depend on local broadcasters for this critical information."
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