Frontline Submits 700 MHz Service Rules Proposal
Frontline Wireless asked the FCC Tues. to seek prompt public comment on its “working draft” of proposed changes to service rules for the 700 MHz spectrum band. Frontline’s proposal includes minimum requirements for public-safety spectrum sharing, network buildout, and coverage area, and designates spectrum bands for the plan -- all in basic accord with the general plan first proposed by Frontline last month (CD Feb 27 p2). The proposal drew praise from some industry sources but drew fire from rival Cyren Call.
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The service rules can’t and shouldn’t “bear the full burden” of ensuring the best 700 MHz arrangement, the Covington & Burling attorneys filing the report said in a letter to FCC Secy. Marlene Dortch. A decision that adopts the new rules should deal with some of the contentious issues that remain, the letter said. Alternatively they can be worked out in the public safety-commercial network sharing arrangements proposed by Frontline, the letter continued.
The proposal would set the 746-764 MHz and 776-794 MHz bands in the following paired channels: (1) 2 channels of one MHz each at 746-747 MHz and 776-777 MHz as Block A. (2) 2 channels of 2 MHz each at 762-764 MHz and 792-794 MHz as Block B. (3) 2 channels of 5 MHz each at 747-752 MHz and 777-782 MHz as Block C. (4) 2 channels of 5 MHz each at 752- 757 MHz and 782-787 MHz as Block D. (5) 2 channels of 5 MHz each at 757-762 and 787-792, at Block E.
The Frontline proposal is “astutely written” and deals with multiple concerns, said Blair Levin, Stifel Nicolaus analyst. The network wouldn’t solve all the problems facing the 700 MHz auction, he said, but it “moves the ball down the field” on many, and unlike the Cyren Call plan keeps the congressional timetable and revenue stream in place. Those are crucial considerations, he said: “From the perspective of 10 years from now, this auction is likely to be the most important thing the FCC does this year.”
The proposal contains “at least one fatal flaw” -- a tremendous incentive for bad faith negotiations between the auction winner and public safety, said Cyren Call Chmn. Morgan O'Brien, whose public safety plan is seen as the chief competitor to Frontline’s. The plan “clearly states” than 10 MHz would be awarded to the highest bidder with no input from public safety, and it contains no significant conditions on that spectrum if an agreement isn’t reached, he said. In that case, the winner would get “an unencumbered commercial license purchased at a steep discount.”
Under the Frontline plan, licenses would last until Jan. 2014.