Title
A MOTION requesting that the executive develop and transmit a report that reviews the potential impacts of the upcoming auction of federally licensed broadcasting frequencies on King County taxpayers, residents and businesses.
Body
WHEREAS, increasing demand for access to wireless connectivity poses a major challenge to ensure that America's wireless networks have the capacity to support the critical economic, public safety, health care and other activities that rely on them, and
WHEREAS, the radio spectrum is the range of frequencies used for wireless applications including broadcast television and radio, cell phones, satellite radio and television, wireless computer networks, Bluetooth, GPS and police dispatch, and
WHEREAS, in the United States, the National Telecommunications and Information Administration governs federal government users of the radio spectrum and the Federal Communications Commission ("the FCC") regulates all other users, and
WHEREAS, starting on March 29, 2016, the FCC will hold an auction, known as "the Incentive Auction," as a means of repurposing the radio spectrum by encouraging existing licensees to voluntarily relinquish spectrum usage rights in exchange for a share of the proceeds from an auction of new licenses to use the repurposed spectrum, and
WHEREAS, television stations operate under license from the federal government and are required to broadcast "in the public interest," and
WHEREAS, local television news serves the public interest by providing real time information in times of crisis, such as earthquake, wildfire, extreme weather and civil unrest, and
WHEREAS, concerns have been raised that purchasers appear to have acquired broadcast licenses following Congressional authorization of a spectrum auction to position themselves for windfall profits from the resale of broadcast licenses rather than from provision of public interest broadcasting, and
WHEREAS, concerns have been raised that the potential ...

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