FCC Expected to Add Frontline NPRM to 700 MHz Order

The plan will appear in an NPRM embedded in an auction rule order, multiple sources close to the process said. The notice, basically ready for release by the chairman’s office, will have “extremely tight” comment deadlines, an industry lawyer said. Speed is needed because under the DTV law the auction of commercial spectrum must start by Jan. 2008, said another source with connections to the FCC.

The agency probably is lagging slightly to “inoculate” itself against suits charging inadequate public notice, said a former FCC staffer. Fitting the plan with a tight deadline can be seen as evidence that the FCC is “giving it serious consideration,” the former staffer said. Invoking previous fast turnarounds, another source put the possible deadlines at 14 days after Federal Register publication for comments and 21 days after Federal Register publication for replies.

In his letter to the Commission, CTIA’s Largent opposed the plan as possibly destabilizing auction timelines and arrangements. “After years of work to reallocate the 700 MHz, the Commission has in front of it… another late-filed proposal,” he said. Largent decried the Frontline plan’s call to move “a significant portion of the spectrum away from commercial use.” This is merely an obstacle to wireless carriers’ stated goal “to provide a competitive alternative to the two existing broadband platforms,” he said, not mentioning business ties linking those “platforms” and all major wireless carriers and T-Mobile.

Frontline’s plan “suffers from many of the fundamental flaws” exhibited by Cyren Call, Largent said, challenging the group’s claim that it tweaks what’s good about Cyren Call and fits it into the legislative framework. “The Commission is being asked in an unrealistic timeframe to review a very intricate [Frontline] proposal,” he said. Questions remain about the plan’s legality and other issues, he said, citing Frontline’s push to return to a “command and control” spectrum management regime; the viability of Frontline’s business plan; the “continuing oversight” such a plan would need; the timing of the proposal’s submission given FCC statutory obligations; and the likelihood of a challenge and potential court action around any FCC formal consideration.

Put the proposal on public notice, the Utilities Telecom Council (UTC) Pres. William Moroney told the Commission in a Thurs. letter. The plan could have positive implications for safety and emergency response and, unlike so many other plans, is something the FCC has authority to implement, the letter said. But questions nonetheless remain, so a public comment period is necessary and should occur as quickly as possible, it added.

Groups comprising the Public Interest Spectrum Coalition (PISC) Thurs. filed detailed ex partes following on the Wed. filing. While only indirectly referencing the Frontline plan, PISC’s push for a wholesale open-access model perfectly complements Frontline’s business plan.

In his submission, Furchtgott-Roth offered 22 criteria for evaluating safety proposals based on 3 principles, he said. Plans should: (1) Fit existing law; (2) unambiguously promote public safety communications; (3) not hurt the commercial wireless industry’s “efficient operation.” “Recent proposals… do not appear to meet some or all of the three principles or the 22 specific criteria,” he said. In light of his first principle, “vague concepts of determining the priority status of public safety spectrum may be unlawful,” and “the federal government cannot lawfully delegate to a non-governmental entity the assignment of public safety spectrum,” said Furchtgott-Roth, former Chief Economist for the House Committee on Commerce and, while at the agency, Martin’s boss. Both legal questions could complicate the Frontline plan.