LPTV Broadcasters Association Urges FCC Chairman Brendan Carr to Grant Television Broadcasting the
Same Tech Freedom as Cellular —
Recognize Global 3GPP 5G Broadcast Standard Now

May 12, 2026
The Honorable Brendan Carr Chairman
Federal Communications Commission
45 L Street, NE
Washington, DC 20554

RE:  Give TV Broadcasting the Same Tech Freedom as Cellular — Recognize 3GPP 5G Broadcast Now

Dear Chairman Carr,

Broadcast television serves a vital role in our society, but it could be doing so much more. It has been stuck in the regulatory Stone Age while cellular wireless technologies rocketed into the 21st century. While wireless service has advanced from analog to digital and then from 3G to the beginning of 6G deployment in just over twenty years, it took broadcast television decades to transition from analog to the first digital standard, ATSC 1.0, where it has remained stuck for more than 15 years. ATSC 3.0 remains a voluntary, non-global standard, and reaches only a tiny percentage of the devices Americans actually use to receive news, information, and entertainment — not just home TV sets but our 5G/6G phones and tablets. Meanwhile, cellular iterates at light speed through global 3GPP standards, delivering the mobility, speed, and innovation that consumers desire.

It’s time to DELETE this dichotomy.

Cellular succeeded because the FCC gave it room to develop and innovate: adopting technology-neutral rules after the initial AMPS era, applying global standards, and implementing a market-based approach to regulation that allowed rapid device evolution to meet the needs of consumers. President Trump has directed his administration to unleash American prosperity through deregulation [1] and you’ve championed this exact approach with 5G/6G, spectrum pipelines, satellite broadband deployment, and your fantastic “Delete, Delete, Delete” initiative. [2] As you said in March 2025, your FCC is committed to ending outdated rules that “slow down our country’s innovators, entrepreneurs, and small businesses.” [3]

Let’s apply that same pro-innovation, deregulatory spirit to television broadcasting.

The smart move is simple: Immediately recognize the worldwide 3GPP [4] 5G Broadcast standard (Releases 16–19, including Bands 112/113) as a voluntary transmission option under Part 74 for low power television (LPTV) [5] stations. To accomplish this, we respectfully request the FCC fast-track adoption of a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking in response to HC2 Broadcasting’s 2025 petition for rulemaking (MB Docket 25-168) (the “Petition”) and move toward an order to update the rules without delay.

The Petition drew ample comments sufficient to move forward. While some parties noted opposition, these detractors are the very entities with vested interests in promoting ATSC 3.0 and who, until recently, publicly viewed 5G Broadcast as an existential threat to ATSC 3.0. In less than a year, however, some of these very detractors have embraced 5G Broadcast as a value-add to ATSC 3.0 and are testing interleaving of 5G Broadcasting within the blanking intervals of 3.0 broadcast transmissions. As this realignment demonstrates, 5G television technology is rapidly evolving but American broadcasters are unable to deploy it to consumers — we need the FCC to eliminate regulatory barriers to unleash the potential of 5G Broadcast, and the LPTV service is the perfect proving ground.

The LPTV service was created in 1982 to foster flexibility, localism, and innovation. [6] The recent flood of over 2,300 applications for new and modified stations proves the hunger for fresh voices and innovative delivery of content. While full-power TV incumbents built ATSC 3.0 as a walled garden for themselves that provides few innovative new offerings to the public, with the FCC’s blessing, LPTV licensees have the flexibility and nimbleness to deploy an open-standard, powerful and future-ready solution: true direct-to-mobile broadcasting.

5G Broadcast delivers what viewers actually want:

• Linear TV, live events, and datacasting straight to any compatible 5G/6G phone—no extra hardware or SIM needed in receive-only mode.

• Seamless hybrid unicast/broadcast networks.

• Blazing-fast iteration backed by Qualcomm, Ericsson, and global handset makers.

• Life-saving emergency alerts in under ½ second—even when cellular networks collapse. 

• A more reliable terrestrial backup to our vulnerable GPS system, delivering resilient positioning, navigation, and timing when satellite signals are jammed, spoofed, or unavailable.

Imagine the potential outcome of the July 2025 Central Texas floods had there been reliable public alerts and encrypted first-responder channels reaching mobile phones via broadcast television stations’ broad, multicast spectrum. That future is ready today. American companies like Qualcomm, XGN Global, and X1 Mobile are leading global 5G Broadcast trials and building rugged devices for first responders. Let’s stop sidelining this homegrown ingenuity and give U.S. television broadcasters the same global-standard freedom that cellular enjoys.

It is absurd that the U.S. television broadcast industry continues to lag behind the world. Europe and Asia are already deploying 5G Broadcast because those countries understand that only a global standard with a mobile device pathway will deliver what consumers want and need. Free American LPTV to innovate, serve local communities, and thrive in a mobile-first world.

Chairman Carr, you’re already the champion of spectrum, deregulation, and American tech leadership. Extend that winning formula to broadcasting. We respectfully request that you recognize 5G Broadcast now. Give nimble LPTV operators the tools to deliver the future on devices people already own.

The spectrum, technology, and Q3 2026 enabled smartphone rollouts are ready. The only missing piece is forward-looking policy.

Thank you for your bold leadership. Let’s unleash LPTV and 5G Broadcast together — because the best days of local broadcasting are still ahead.

Respectfully,

Frank Copsidas Chairman and Founder
LPTV Broadcasters Association
SF@LPTVBA.org

‍cc: Commissioner Anna M. Gomez
Commissioner Olivia Trusty
Alexander Sanjenis, Acting Chief, Media Bureau
Hillary DeNigro, Deputy Chief, Media Bureau
Evan Morris, Deputy Chief, Media Bureau
David Brown, Chief, Video Division, Media Bureau

‍ ‍

1 Executive Order 14192 of January 31, 2025, Unleashing Prosperity Through Deregulation, 24 Fed.

Reg. 9065 (Feb. 6, 2025).

2 See, e.g., Delete, Delete, Delete, Public Notice, 40 FCC Rcd 1601 (2025).

3 FCC Chairman Carr Launches Massive Deregulation Initiative, New Release (March 12, 2025).

4 3GPP, also known as the 3rd Generation Partnership Project, is the worldwide telecommunications standards body that develops technical specifications and protocols for mobile technology, including 5G cellular and 5G Broadcast. For an introduction to 3GPP’s 5G Broadcast/Multicast releases, see https://www.3gpp.org/technologies/broadcast-multicast1.

5 LPTV: Low Power Television – up to 15 kW, ~30-mile coverage, created for localism and innovation.

6 See, generally, In re Inquiry into the Future of Low Power Television Broadcasting and Television Translators in the National Telecommunications System, Report & Order, 51 R.R. 2nd (1982).