Few Seek Meetings with Commissioners on 700 MHz D-Block
With the FCC to vote in a week on rules for a 700 MHz D- block reauction, all is quiet at the commission. Relatively few parties have met with commissioners or top staff since Chairman Kevin Martin gave details of the plan a Sept. 5 call with reporters. Release late Thursday of the expected FCC sunshine notice will cut off lobbying.
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“There hasn’t been a lot of activity,” an FCC official said. “There was a lot this spring and right before Brooklyn,” site of an FCC en banc hearing on the D-block. A Tuesday House D-block hearing showed the extent of uncertainty still overhanging the spectrum, the official said.
Lack of lobbying at the FCC heightens concern about the fate of a national public safety broadband network, given tightening credit markets and a jittery economy, industry and FCC officials said Wednesday. “I don’t think anyone would deny how tight money is right now,” said a public safety official. Capital markets’ condition probably positions Verizon Wireless and AT&T even more strongly relative to other carriers to buy the D-block, some said.
“If you think about the economies of building out a network like this, it’s just a very daunting task,” said Stagg Newman, consultant and former FCC chief technologist. “The cap ex needed for build out dwarfs the amount needed to bid on the spectrum,” he said. “That capital expenditure is much larger for a new entrant than a Verizon or an AT&T, which can exploit the fact that they're already building out at 700 and 800 MHz.”
Few groups or companies have filed ex partes on meetings at the commission. Among carriers, U.S. Cellular has been the most public in showing interest in the D-block, with Chairman LeRoy Carlson testifying at the July en banc and Tuesday before the House Homeland Security Committee. Qualcomm has been at the FCC to urge adoption of “technology neutral rules” with a specified air interface for any group of licenses. The Satellite Industry Association reported meetings. For so major an item, however, the FCC has seen little outreach.
Public Safety Spectrum Trust Chairman Harlin McEwen and others in that group have met with commissioners and their staffs, most recently Commissioner Michael Copps. McEwen is not concerned about a paucity of activity, he said. “Most all of the main information is already known to everybody and now it’s a matter of what adjustments they're going to make,” he said. “A lot of people are talking to us. I'm talking to all the players.”
An FCC official expects more requests for meetings with commissioners after the FCC releases a notice of proposed rulemaking after the Sept. 25 agenda meeting. “It’s an NPRM still,” the official said. “People will get a chance to see some details and comment on them.” A number of public safety and industry officials agreed with that point. An industry lobbyist said Martin has provided many of the details, eliminating the need for some meetings, at least until after the release of the rulemaking.