Billy Elliot the Forum

In pre-iPhone days, cordless mics squatted without challenge on some frequencies, in particular unused TV channels in the UHF range. But Verizon Wireless, a joint venture of Verizon Communications Inc. and Vodafone Group PLC, and AT&T Inc. bought many of those frequencies in 2008 to expand their wireless networks. In 2010, regulators evicted the microphone signals, with the added goal of making room for public-safety communications.

The switch angered large churches and theaters, which were forced to buy new equipment for new frequencies. To compensate, the FCC set aside channels in each market for microphone use and offered a permit system for some users to reserve airspace ahead of time.

Now, the government is considering undoing some of those set asides to make room for faster Internet connections.

Reed Hall, the audio director at Houston's Lakewood Church, one of the country's largest, said Sunday churchgoers across the country may be forced to listen to scratchy audio if that happens. Smaller congregations may not be aware their equipment has been outlawed, or may lack the funds to buy new microphones, their supporters say.

"If you're a rural church in the middle of Arkansas, you're not reading every government document that comes out," he said.

At Washington's John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, the lack of reserved microphone airspace could ruin the "ability to present the performing arts and the audience's ability to enjoy it," the venue told the FCC in written comments.

The Broadway League, an industry trade group, warned the commission of potential "physical harm to actors," should there be a communications breakdown.