FCC Chairman Kevin Martin asked officials of the Public Safety Spectrum Trust and Cyren Call, the PSST’s advisor, to meet Monday with him at the FCC. Also on hand: Commissioner Michael Copps and the chiefs of the FCC Wireless and Public Safety bureaus. The meeting came as the FCC renews its study of the D-block’s future and ways to find a licensee willing to work with public safety to build a national, interoperable wireless network.
The Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit Tuesday granted a stay of FCC E-911 location accuracy rules, pending judicial review. The Rural Cellular Association, T-Mobile, Sprint-Nextel, Verizon Wireless and AT&T all went to court to fight the order, which requires carriers to meet progressively tougher testing and measurement standards for wireless location accuracy (CD Sept 11 Special Bulletin p2). “The movants have demonstrated a likelihood of success based on the order’s procedural irregularities,” the judges said. RCA is pleased “that the court agreed that there are serious procedural problems with the revised rule that set new compliance deadlines and reporting requirements that are not supported by the record,” the company said. “While RCA members will continue to work on improvements in E911 location accuracy they should not be expected to perform the impossible or to go broke trying.” An FCC spokesman said, “We will comply with the court’s order and continue to work with public safety and the wireless industry to ensure that the public can get help in times of emergency.”
The FCC has not changed its policies on consulting with the Fish and Wildlife Service since a February order by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit told the FCC to explain why it did not review fully the environmental impact of 6,000 Gulf Coast communications towers before granting them licenses, a Wireless Bureau official told an FCBA lunch Tuesday. The court ordered the agency to explain its failure to consult the Fish and Wildlife Service on the towers’ environmental impact and to “provide notice of pending tower applications.” The FCC is deciding whether to appeal the decision, said Jeff Steinberg of the FCC Wireless Bureau. The FCC consults with Fish & Wildlife case by case, he said. “The court did talk in terms of us working in more of a programmatic consultation with Fish and Wildlife and that’s one of the things we need to work through,” Steinberg said. “I can’t really tell you at this point where it’s going to go.” The agency likely will be done this year with an online electronic registration system for towers, addressing another court demand.
CTIA said the FCC should adopt an areawide licensing approach, subject to auction, for most of the spectrum that would be available if the FCC opened TV white spaces for other uses, especially wireless broadband. Other parts of the band should be set aside to study unlicensed uses, the group said. CTIA released its proposal the day after Google called a press conference to release its own plan (CD March 25 p2). The CTIA proposal puts the group at odds with Microsoft and other strong advocates of opening the spectrum for use by unlicensed, portable devices. The Wireless Innovation Alliance (WIA) blasted the CTIA proposal.
FCC officials have spent two weeks winnowing records and compiling data to meet Wednesday’s deadline for information sought in a bipartisan Commerce Committee oversight inquiry into everything from the rulemaking process to key personnel decisions, according to people familiar with the effort. “Tomorrow is the deadline,” a committee spokesman said. “Committee staff look forward to reviewing records that are produced by the Commission. The Committee will work with the FCC to ensure they comply with the Committee’s request.”
Verizon Wireless came within a hair’s breadth of losing its nationwide footprint at 700 MHz, based on an analysis of the auction by Wireless Strategy. Stifel Nicolaus said Monday in a note that its analysis shows that 700 MHz buys by Verizon Wireless and AT&T “significantly increased their lead in spectrum holdings over other wireless carriers,” though AT&T paid a much higher relative price.
Google proposed rules for use of the TV white spaces that it said offer “enhanced” protections for broadcasters and wireless microphone makers. Filed to the FCC, Google’s proposal builds on one by Motorola last year (CD Oct 22 p6), with an extra safeguard for wireless microphones -- a safe harbor of spectrum that would be off limits to other white spaces devices.
Broadband radio services rules approved by the FCC were a mixed bag but will help rollout of wireless broadband in the 2496 to 2690 MHz band, the Wireless Communications Association said Friday. The FCC approved rules for the unassigned broadband radio spectrum auction, sought comment on licensing educational broadband service spectrum, and set up a BRS service area for the Gulf of Mexico, a step firmly opposed by WCA and Sprint Nextel. The FCC counts more than 70 BRS basic trading areas unassigned and available for auction, it said.
The government should make greater use of smart radio technologies and, “where feasible,” commercial services to make the most of communications spectrum, said NTIA, which Thursday released long-awaited Federal Strategic Spectrum Plan. The report, nearly two years late, used information from 15 federal agencies in assembling a basic portrait of federal agency spectrum use. But material from the Department of Defense, the largest federal user, was extremely vague and lacked a list of specific frequencies.
The list of 700 MHz auction winners was dominated by incumbents, based on material the FCC released Thursday. The big winner, Verizon Wireless, bought the six 22 MHz regional licenses covering the continental U.S. and the license for Hawaii, for $9.63 billion. AT&T won 227 licenses, all in the B block, paying $6.64 billion. AT&T and Verizon Wireless together accounted for $16.3 billion of the total $19.6 billion bid, Stifel Nicolaus said. MetroPCS and Leap Wireless, active in last year’s advanced wireless services auction, largely were frozen out of this bidding. FCC Chairman Kevin Martin predicted that the commission will move quickly to reauction public safety D-block spectrum left unsold at auction’s end.