This month's edition of TV Technology magazine that I received today was pages
and pages of their top story: C-band satellite, all 180 MHZ of it that remains,
was being auctioned off to wireless/cell providers in July 2027, and it isn't
coming back once the auction is over. The C-Band spectrum is expected to sell
for over $3 billion for 5G and 6G to wireless carriers.
Broadcasters, who have used these frequencies reliably for decades to transmit
news, entertainment and sporting events around the globe, and the government,
transmitting weather data across NOAAport, must get off their channels soon
after the auction concludes. Most pay TV networks have switched to
IP-based/Internet transmission. Fox Sports, and sports networks had a panel
discussion at the recent National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) meeting
that was packed to the rafters, with people looking for reliable broadcast
transmission solutions. The complaints that Internet delivery is nowhere near
as reliable in the "final mile" as satellite transmission is, fell on deaf ears
to the FCC. But what about the National Weather Service, NOAA and UNIDATA?
While some, and maybe much, has been made of NOAA using AWIPS in the cloud by
that time...the same cannot be said for what will happen to .edu's and .com's,
and others who rely on C-Band for NOAAport data reception. The current FCC
mantra is "YOU figure it out how you'll get that data from point 'A' to point
'B'. ".
We are just over one year out from all of this happening, and I am left in a
lurch wondering what is going to happen next year. I want to be prepared. I
cannot do this alone. There has been radio silence about this issue, except in
UNIDATA annual meeting notes. The train is pulling into the station for cloud
and IP-based delivery of data, and when it departs, how is UNIDATA, and how are
we, going to be a part of that train?
There is also concern about the loss of access to data. I'm hearing rumblings
of Level 2 radar data being discontinued from NOMADS in the not-too-distant
future. We use that in our classrooms extensively. Our https://weather.cod.edu
web site uses the NOAAport feed for much of our data and imagery. I don't want
it to go dark in about a year. Does anyone have any answers at this point as to
what will happen, and how this will be handled?
With regards,
Gilbert Sebenste
Meteorology Support Analyst
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