Broadcast television went digital last year ...

... and the frequencies it vacated were auctioned off.  AT&T and Verizon snatched 'em up and now the FCC is dealing with the crumbs.  Pay attention:  this may affect you...

From Bloomberg:

Broadway theaters, churches and other users of wireless microphones were given five months to vacate U.S. airwaves that regulators say are needed for high- speed Web services planned by companies including AT&T Inc.

The Federal Communications Commission in a statement today set a June 12 deadline for wireless microphone users to switch to different signals. AT&T and Verizon Wireless, the two largest U.S. mobile-phone companies, won a 2008 auction for rights to the airwaves, which had been occupied by broadcast television and unlicensed microphone transmissions.

Broadway productions of “Wicked” and “The Phantom of the Opera, as well as sporting events and concerts, are likely to be affected. The cost may reach $100,000 for a theater to replace microphones with those that use different airwaves, said Thomas Ferrugia, director of government relations for the Broadway League, a New York-based theater trade group.

Shows use wireless microphones for actors and for stage crews that move scenery, Ferrugia said. He said the burden will be greatest for older shows, such as “Wicked” that bought equipment before the FCC’s order was contemplated, and have few microphones that can comply with the new rules.

“We will make ourselves ready,” Ferrugia said. “As difficult as it will be, we’ll be able to comply.”

The order will primarily affect wireless microphone systems that operate in the 700 megahertz frequency.

"These unlicensed devices cannot continue to operate in this band because they may cause harmful interference to public safety entities and next generation consumers devices that will be utilizing the 700 megahertz frequency,” the FCC said in a statement. “No devices utilizing this frequency may be sold or distributed.”

TV broadcasters left those airwaves in a transition to digital service that ended last June. In some cities public safety agencies have begun using the frequencies.

There are still “significant unauthorized operation of wireless microphones” in the auctioned airwaves, according to the FCC. The order today leaves wireless microphone users to tune their equipment to use signals not auctioned in 2008, or buy new equipment that doesn’t use the auctioned frequencies. 

Other wireless microphone users include churches, schools and corporate boardrooms, said David Pawlik, a Washington-based lawyer with Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP who represents the Coalition of Wireless Microphone Users. Members include theaters, the African Methodist Episcopal Church and National Football League.

“They’re used professionally in ways that are impossible to replace,” Pawlik said. He called some uses “vital to the public.”

AT&T and Verizon were the largest winners at the 2008 FCC auction.

Verizon Wireless, owned by Verizon Communications Inc. and Vodafone Group PLC, will begin offering advanced wireless services using the auctioned airwaves in 25 to 30 cities “in mid-year 2010,” according to a December filing to the FCC. The Basking Ridge, New Jersey-based wireless company urged the FCC “to act swiftly to eliminate” wireless microphone users from the auctioned airwaves.

Dallas-based AT&T said its airwave purchases in the 2008 auction would help it establish “new-generation” wireless Internet technologies.

“Today’s order will help ensure that harmful interference does not hamper commercial wireless carriers’ fourth-generation deployment plans,” Steve Largent, chief executive officer of CTIA-The Wireless Association, said in an e-mailed statement.

Discuss on the STL Media Message Board. (Registration required)