FCC Seen Likely to Resolve Wireless Issues Before Year’s End

FCC probably will act next week on Remington’s petition, sources said. The firm wants a waiver of Part 15 rules so it can sell its Eyeball R1 device. The FCC wants it sold only to law enforcement agencies. The unit permits live video and audio surveillance of locations otherwise visually inaccessible, such as building interiors, caves, tunnels and alleys. It would operate at 2.4 GHz with 1000 mW for transmitting audio and video to a control point and at 902-928 MHz with emitted power of less than 1000 mW for command and control data transmission.

The next 2 weeks should see the FCC vote on an order that sets rules for an ATG auction expected the 2nd quarter 2006, sources said. The order, now in circulation, responds to reconsideration petitions by Space Data and AirCell. AirCell asked the FCC to shorten the 2-year period granted Verizon Airfone to consolidate its operations into 1 MHz of spectrum from 4 MHz. AirCell also asked FCC to reconsider its decision to renew Airfone’s expired narrowband ATG license for 5 years.

The FCC, whose original draft order looked at preserving Airfone’s 2-year transition, is reviewing AirCell’s latest position, an agency source said. In a Nov. 2 letter, AirCell changed its stance, asking the FCC to make Airfone vacate the 3 MHz portion of the band within a year of the ATG auction’s close -- rather than the license grant date, not 6 months as AirCell originally urged. AirCell now wants Airfone’s renewed license to expire on “the sooner of December 31, 2007, or when 85% of its existing customer base… have discontinued use of the incumbent technology.” That would be 6 months longer than the 2 years AirCell had requested for the renewal period, an industry source said.

It’s “too early to tell” whether the changes AirCell made in its terms will change the draft reconsideration order that confirmed the Feb. 22 FCC decision, an agency source said.

Other ATG-related issues for the FCC to resolve include: (1) Whether to raise a 25% ATG auction bidding credit offered small businesses to 35%, as AirCell asked. (2) Whether to confirm that service rules adopted in the Feb. 22 FCC order apply to use of balloon-borne stratospheric platforms and similar technologies to provide ATG service, as Space Data asked. (3) Whether to reconsider a bar on ATG licensees providing ancillary terrestrial services in the ATG band on a secondary basis, as Space Data asked.

The Commission is expected to resolve a fight between the wireless and satellite industries over the last 1/3 of the abandoned 40 MHz of 2 GHz band MSS spectrum. The agency said it would give TMI and ICO each 1/3 of the spectrum, and sought comments on how to allocate the last 1/3. TMI and ICO want it, but the wireless industry, led by CTIA, wants it allocated for terrestrial use. The issue, still at the Bureau, hasn’t been circulated but probably will be done before 2006, an FCC source said.

The FCC plans to act on Tier I waiver requests to extend a Dec. 31 deadline for 95% penetration of location- capable handsets among subscribers. Verizon Wireless said it would be close to the 95% threshold by the deadline, but could need 6 more months to cross it. Sprint Nextel and Nextel Partners want to have until Dec. 31, 2007. Alltel asked for a waiver until June 30, 2007. A CTIA/Rural Cellular Assn. petition seeks open-ended relief for carriers that have met and continue to meet the 100% location-capable handset sale and activation requirement, allowing them to meet the 95% penetration mark through handset replacement and churn without a specific deadline. Comment and reply cycles haven’t closed on these requests.

The FCC may launch a rulemaking on whether to limit access by designated entities (DEs) that partner with large wireless carriers to bidding credits in advanced wireless service (AWS) and other auctions. Earlier this year, denying a Council Tree petition asking for a change in DE rules, the FCC committed to launching an NPRM. Comrs. Adelstein and Copps have been pushing for the FCC to complete the proceeding in time for the summer 2006 AWS auction.

Before year’s end the FCC is expected to set performance rules for broadband radio service (BRS) and educational broadband service (EBS) licensees in the 2.5 GHz band and resolve other related issues raised on reconsideration, said industry sources. The item originally was to be on the Oct. meeting agenda and the hold-up is puzzling, industry and FCC sources said. “The order hasn’t been circulated yet but could be done before year-end,” an agency source said.

“My understanding is the Chairman’s office is reviewing a possible draft,” an industry source said: “There are 2 or 3 different dockets we are talking about,” including 03-66 and 02-364. “We would probably be expecting decisions [in both dockets] by the end of the year,” the source said.

The FCC is expected to act on reconsideration of a June 2004 order revising rules for ITFS and MDS operators in the 2495-2690 MHz band. The agency likely will replace MEAs adopted in the 2004 order with smaller basic trading areas (BTAs) as geographic benchmarks for transition to the new BRS/EBS band plan, another industry source said. Other big issues facing the FCC involve technical parameters and licensees’ interference protection obligations. These include limits on power and out-of- band emissions, and whether operators now using the band for wireless cable service will be able to continue doing so.

The FCC likely will address issues raised in a further NPRM launched in June 2004. A central issue there involves build-out obligations to be imposed on BRS and EBS licensees. “The important question is whether the Commission will impose such a short time frame for build- outs that operators will be forced to deploy before the WiMAX mobile standard is finalized and product is widely available,” an industry source said: “There is a fear within the industry that the Commission’s desire to promote rapid deployments will effectively preclude operators from deploying the mobile WiMAX technology that many believe is most likely to lead to success.” Another issue is treatment of grandfathered EBS licensees operating on the E and F groups.

The year-end list also includes reconsideration petitions in a related proceeding, another industry source said. Among the issues is whether the FCC should change its rules for the industrial, scientific and medical (ISM) band, as WCA and Sprint Nextel ask, claiming BRS operations would experience harmful interference from ISM gear. The FCC let BRS licensees displaced from the 2150- 2160/2162 MHz band move to 2496-2500 MHz part of the 2400- 2500 MHz band allocated internationally for ISM devices, including microwave ovens. WCA proposed to put Part 18 out-of-band emission limits in the 2496-2500 MHz band, but ISM interests claim that would violate international treaties and, in any event, lacks factual support.