July 29, 2006 Breaking Terrestrial Radio's Automobile Monopoly
By J.H. Snider Truth, Justice, and Telecom Policy http://quixote.blogs.com/telecompolicy/2006/07/breaking_terres.html Until recently, terrestrial radio had a monopoly on live car radio programming and substantial monopoly power over the entire car radio listening experience, if only because of the inconvenience of storing large numbers of CDs or audiotapes within a car. A device that has had a huge impact in breaking that monopoly and opening up new listening experiences is the FM modulator, which connects satellite radio services (such as XM and Sirius) and MP3 players (such as the iPod) to a car radio wirelessly. The FM modulator couldn't have done it without the advent of satellite radio and MP3 players, but FM modulators go together with terrestrial broadcast competition like yin and yang. On July 20 Marketwatch reported that FCC action to halt shipment of built-in FM modulators has already hurt sales of XM and Sirius satellite radio service. Yesterday the New York Times attributed XM Satellite's loss in part to this FCC action. FM modulators are unlicensed devices like cordless phones, WiFi, and Bluetooth. They use the vacant channels between FM stations and can only operate at very low power--up to about ten feet in distance under ideal conditions but as a practical matter often only about three feet. In today's satellite radios, they are typically built into the main radio device and allow car drivers to listen to satellite radio through the built in car radio without attaching any wires. Currently, there are about 13 million satellite radios in operation. With iPods and other music players, the FM modulator is typically a small add-on. But it is still usually perceived to be more convenient to connect to a car's radio than a wired cassette adapter, an option not even possible with the increasingly common CD only car radio. Other wireless connecting options, such as Bluetooth (which uses unlicensed spectrum in a different band), have been built into only a tiny fraction of both cars currently on the road and portable audio devices currently in use. Tens of millions of MP3 players have been sold. Terrestrial broadcasters now want to cripple this source of competition. They have already fought tooth and nail to prevent satellite radio and other spectrum holders from providing local audio programming services. They also have numerous initiatives at play in the FCC to acquire the vacant channels for themselves, thus preventing any unlicensed devices from using the broadcast bands. Now they have filed an enforcement request to the FCC with a report demonstrating that 14 of the 17 FM modulators they tested were operating illegally. A copy of the report was also sent to FCC Chairman Martin and Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Ted Stevens and Co-Chairman Daniel Inouye. The key problem, apparently, is that many of these devices are operating at power levels higher than allowed. I have no reason to doubt that these FM modulators are operating illegally, but I do have reason to doubt that these devices are doing anyone any harm except creating some very healthy competition for licensed terrestrial broadcasters. The broadcasters argue, for example, that someone could be listening to the Playboy Channel or Howard Stern while a religious family with young kids drives by and suddenly picks up the offensive programming for a couple seconds (possibly more if folks are stuck in a traffic jam or at a stoplight). This is a perfect scenario tailor made to appeal to FCC Chairman Martin, who is very concerned about indecent programming being foisted on unwilling or inappropriate audiences. But it is also a curious scenario. Unfortunately, every day I must endure some of the worst traffic in the U.S. (Washington, DC has been rated the third most congested metro area in one prominent study). Yet I have never had such a problem (and I'm including other programming scenarios, such as having my music interrupted by an unwanted religious program :-) ). Nor do I know anyone who has suffered such an interruption, and I've asked around to about ten people. Analogous scenarios would be someone driving watching pornography visible through a rear window or listening to loud lewd music audible in all directions (car music through an open window at legal sound levels can travel 20 or more feet). Recently a prominent athlete purportedly crashed his car while watching pornography. These would seem to me to be much more likely problems because of the greater distance video images and acoustic audio can travel. But I don't believe the government has taken to banning such speech. Why might manufacturers put out FM modulators operating at higher than allowed limits? After all, when was the last time you saw anyone use an FM modulator for a home network or any other long distance application? It's possible that the broadcasters are right and there is no good reason. If so, I say bravo, let's sock it to the manufacturers as the broadcasters want. But here's another possible explanation. The current power levels are incredibly low. For example, I get poor reception when I place my FM modulator more than 3 feet from my car's FM radio/antenna. And in areas where the FM dial is very crowded, such as Washington, DC/Baltimore and New York City, the quality of FM modulation can be quite poor and people often refuse to use them as a result. So maybe the manufacturers have juiced up the power a bit so that the FM modulators can work as they should. Now let's think about the broadcasters' scenario a bit more carefully. FM modulators are supposed to be used on vacant FM channels. Why would anyone be listening to a blank FM channel? Have you ever been in a car where people were driving while listening to static noise? I haven't. Perhaps a poorly designed FM modulator is bleeding its signal onto an adjacent channel while operating at a high power. If so, I say go after the manufacturers of those devices and good riddance. But I didn't get the sense from reading the broadcasters' test results that that is the major violation. The major identified concern is illegally high power levels. But if people don't listen to FM static, then the FM modulator must be interfering with another FM modulator occupying the unused FM channel; that is, one unlicensed device interfering with another unlicensed device, which is a very different type of complaint than the one broadcasters put forth. Sure, a prankster could tune in to the Playboy channel and use a high power FM modulator to try to interfere with the listening experience of a passing car. This could be especially effective if a large metal truck was passing by and blocking the signal of a local FM channel the passing car happened to be listening to. But have you ever heard of such a case? Why should we engage in such a draconian limitation on in-car listening options for such a speculative scenario? And even if the scenario were relatively common, it wouldn't necessarily be cause for a draconian remedy. My young children play in my back yard and occasionally make a ruckus that might annoy my neighbors. But that's something we all learn to live with because the cure is worse than the disease. And sure, I don't like it when my neighbors kids play basketball in their driveway because it makes a certain amount of noise that goes beyond their property lines, but I learn to live with this occasional annoyance. With the advent of digital radio, the broadcasters' argument against FM modulators is a little better. Digital radio effectively doubles an FM station's bandwidth, bleeding into the first adjacent unused channel on each side of the FM station's main channel. This digital signal would appear as static on an FM radio and not be detected by an FM modulator. But when FM broadcasters won this new spectrum they promised it would not come at the expense of any existing service and would merely allow them to provide more radio options to the public. Now we are learning otherwise, although I don't believe this was explicitly stated as the cause for the FCC's enforcement action. The basic principle the FCC should adopt going forward, already implicit in its current power level rule, is that car radio listeners should be able to use the spectrum/channels in their own cars for whatever purpose they want unless this significantly harms someone else's car radio listening experience. This is similar to the widely held democratic norm that government has no business regulating the activities of people that don't adversely impact other people. Even if there is rare interference with someone else, the overall benefit to society of giving consumers control over their car interiors, including their listening options, will sometimes be worth the cost and should be subject to some common sense evaluations rather than subject to some absolutist engineering dictate of no interference. One implication of this principle is that if a car was designed as an electromagnetic cage blocking all radio transmissions, then FM modulator power levels could even be significantly greater (e.g., so they could work from the back seat of a minivan in a market with a crowded terrestrial radio dial). Many rooms and buildings are now painted with special paint to block the transmission of unwanted radio waves. In the case of theaters and broadcast studios, the purpose is to block cell phone transmissions from interfering with performances. In the case of embassies and corporate board rooms, it's to prevent wireless bugs from transmitting confidential information. So maybe the question the FCC should be asking is not how it can crack down on these illegal devices but how it can improve the public's driving experience so that FM modulators can actually operate the way they were intended to. Indeed, this case is an excellent illustration of why it should be illegal for the FCC to regulate any radio device whose operation doesn't harm someone else. Under such a regulatory regime, the public could use any spectrum within their own home or business as long as harmful interference didn't go beyond their property lines. But this would represent a revolution in the FCC's thinking and require the use of smart radios that won't be economical for some years. Meanwhile, I suggest just letting the public use FM modulators in their own cars in a way that would help break the terrestrial broadcasters' programming monopoly. ================================ George Antunes, Political Science Dept University of Houston; Houston, TX 77204 Voice: 713-743-3923 Fax: 713-743-3927 antunes at uh dot edu Reply with a "Thank you" if you liked this post. _____________________________ MEDIANEWS mailing list [email protected] To unsubscribe send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
