AT&T to FCC: Open Access ‘Invites Legal Action’

Accepting “all or any aspect” of Google’s proposal, which reiterated its desire for open access and set out four central principles, “would invite a serious legal challenge that would throw into doubt the commission’s ability to complete the auction on the timetable contemplated by Congress,” wrote Robert W. Quinn, Jr., AT&T senior vice president of federal policy. The FCC is required to begin by January 2008 the auction of the spectrum being made available with the switch to digital TV.

Because Google wants a rules different from current practice, its “proposal represents a less efficient, less valuable use of spectrum,” or Google is attempting to “abuse the regulatory process to eliminate competition,” said Quinn. “Neither aim is worthy of the commission’s consideration.”

AT&T’s letter is riddled with warnings to the FCC that to burden any of the spectrum as FCC Chairman Kevin Martin has proposed would devalue it, “robbing the U.S. Treasury and taxpayers of its full worth.” The value of the spectrum, and whether the commission should consider it, had been discussed at the Frontline event. The FCC is prohibited by law from considering spectrum’s value in its policymaking, said Gigi Sohn, president of consumer advocacy group Public Knowledge,.

Since Google did not submit specific rule changes, AT&T gave the FCC a list of questions for the company to answer. They include: What attachment and spectral-efficiency standards are to be imposed? What procedures should the commission adopt for approving devices? Should there should be exceptions or limitations to the open-access rules related to network capacity, compatibility or security?

Before AT&T released its letter and days after word leaked from the FCC that Frontline’s plan had not been accepted by the chairman (CD July 11 p1), Frontline made a final push, promising that its plan will prevail. “We fully expect that our business plan will succeed,” said Frontline Chairman Janice Obuchowski. She acknowledged that Frontline still “faces significant policy challenges” but said the company is encouraged that some of the principles of its business plan “are still alive.”

Frontline’s plan has not been embraced by public safety, so it brought in former FBI Director Louis Freeh. It is not too late for him to influence the outcome, Freeh said, noting that he has been discussing the need for public-safety interoperability since he became FBI director in the Clinton administration.

Trying to blunt criticism that its plan would create a rigged auction, former FCC chairman and Frontline Vice Chairman Reed Hundt said that by not accepting the Frontline plan the FCC was rigging the auction in favor of the incumbents. Nothing good comes from the government’s setting rules to benefit a particular business plan, Hundt said. And he should know, he said, pointing to the NextWave fiasco “when the government was too close to a business plan. Involvement in NextWave was the single worst mistake of my time at the FCC.”

While Martin has proposed a no-block, no-lock rule for the 22 MHz regional C-block, he has not agreed to the wholesale business model that Frontline supports. The model would allow Frontline to work with rural wireline carriers to offer fourth-generation wireless service to their customers, said Obuchowski, responding to support from CenturyTel, a rural incumbent carrier.

Martin late Tuesday circulated 180 pages of auction and service rules for the 700 MHz band, hoping to have the commission vote this month. Martin accepted Frontline’s plan for creating a 10 MHz block for a nationwide public-private partnership to benefit public safety but left out wholesale and open access in that block.