The FCC has decreed that the BAS Transition must be wrapped up by March 2009. The deadline has already been extended once. Do you think the transition deadline will be extended again?
What's the
BAS Transition? Glad you asked Dinesh. The BAS Transition applies only to broadcasters in the United States. BAS stands for Broadcast Auxiliary Spectrum, a portion of the spectrum that broadcasters use for electronic newsgathering. The Federal Government wants to move broadcasters off of their current spectrum band to a new swath of spectrum in the 2 GHz band in order to free that portion of the spectrum for other uses, including Mobile Satellite Services. Sprint-Nextel has purchased a portion of broadcasters' old spectrum for newsgathering and is paying for new digital radio equipment for broadcasters to move to the new BAS band. The transition started several years ago, involves billions of dollars and is scheduled to conclude in the March-August 2009 timeframe.