With a little over four months left in the 39-month RF repack process, RF vendors are finally breathing a sigh of relief.
After ramping up their production lines and installation capabilities, manufacturers of transmitters, antennas, transmission lines and other RF components say the repack process has generally gone well and that customers have met the FCC’s deadlines, although some have done it with interim transmission facilities.
Vendors now expect the industry as a whole will make the July 3 end date for vacating UHF channels 38-51 for use by wireless operators like T-Mobile that purchased the 600 MHz spectrum at auction.
The repack was organized into 10 separate phases to spread out the massive undertaking of 987 stations switching frequencies. With the highest-volume phases already completed, the RF industry appears to be over the hump.
