Congress warned over plan to cut FM band spacing

The Kapisanan ng mga Brodkaster ng Pilipinas (KBP) has warned Congress that a proposal to reduce the band spacing between FM radio stations will threaten the viability of the industry and harm existing radio broadcast service.

In a joint hearing conducted by the House committees on transportation and communication and on legislative franchises, the KBP, led by its president Jose Antonio Veloso, said that narrowing the spacing between radio stations from the present 800 megahertz to only 400 MHz will threaten the economic viability of the radio industry, result in poor signal quality, and prevent existing radio stations from converting to digital broadcasting.

The National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) has come up with a proposed circular that will reduce the band spacing by one-half. The move, which is being supported by the two committees chaired by Rep. Jacinto Paras and Juan Miguel Zubiri, is allegedly aimed at making new frequencies available so that those given franchises by Congress but could not operate radio stations because there are no more available frequencies from NTC will finally have one.

Members of KBP however fear that once they are given frequencies, these new entries will operate radio stations even in already congested broadcast areas such as Metro Manila where there are already more than 50 stations.

Those who are pushing for narrower spacing between radio stations say this will allow the introduction of digital broadcasting in the country. Among the proponents is Media One, a new congressional franchise guarantee which had applied for a frequency in Metro Manila. However, it was discovered during a recent Congress hearing that Media One’s application is only for analog broadcast and not digital.

The KBP informed the two committees that it was only in October 2002 that the United States adopted a technology that would allow existing broadcasters to migrate to digital broadcasting using their existing frequencies. The technology, referred to as in-band-on-channel or IBOC, is designed to be used in the transition to full digital broadcasting which is supposed to give listeners CD-like quality reception and allow stations to deliver auxiliary services such as text and data to listeners.

The IBOC technology will enable existing radio broadcasters to effect seamless integration to digital broadcasting using their existing infrastructure. The system will enable the present receivers to continue receiving the analog signal while IBOC receivers will receive the CD-quality digital signal.

However, KBP said transition technology still requires the maintenance of the current 800 MHz separation and cannot be implemented in the Philippines if the present spacing is reduced.