If Sprint Nextel must clear channels 1 to 120 before it gets compensatory spectrum from public safety, it could wreck the carrier’s 800 MHz network, Chris Wright, representing the carrier, told the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit Tuesday. The three-judge panel hearing the case peppered FCC and Sprint lawyers with mostly procedural questions, giving little indication how it might rule. Judges David Sentelle, Douglas Ginsburg and Janice Rogers Brown heard arguments.
The FCC’s 700 MHz auction closed Tuesday afternoon after 38 bidding days and 261 rounds, resulting in total provisional winnings bids of almost $19.6 billion. Attention now turns to the future of the FCC’s public safety D-block and to the release of the names of the winners. FCC Chairman Kevin Martin told reporters he already has circulated a brief item that “de-links” the D-block from the rest of the auction, allowing the FCC to release the names of successful bidders “almost immediately.” He said staff is working on proposals for the D-block and he remains committed to a national public safety broadband network.
Wireless carriers led by CTIA line up against public interest groups in comments to the FCC on whether text messages are protected by the anti-discrimination provisions of Title II of the Communications Act. Public interest groups led by Public Knowledge petitioned the commission in December after Verizon Wireless refused at first to issue a text messaging short code to abortion-rights group NARAL Pro-Choice America (CD Jan 16 p2).
Relationships between FCC Chairman Kevin Martin and at least two FCC commissioners reached a low after Martin declined to strike a deal with Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., that would have allowed votes this year on new terms for Commissioners Deborah Tate and Jonathan Adelstein, numerous agency sources said.
The FCC Monday raised from 10 to 14 the number of daily bidding rounds in the 700 MHz auction to bring it to a close. Bidding stayed focused on the B block. “If it doesn’t end in the last two rounds today, it should be over by tomorrow,” said Tom Peters, a consultant with Wireless Strategies who’s tracking the auction. “Although it could theoretically go on for much longer, I don’t expect it will given the nature of the bidding that we've been seeing in recent rounds.” Round 243 Monday was the first with just one bid, Peters said. The advanced wireless services auction ran 17 rounds after the first single-bid round, he said.
The FCC Public Safety Bureau, acting on wireless carrier complaints, delayed for six months the deadline for carrier compliance with new E-911 location accuracy rules. Commissioner Jonathan Adelstein said the order changing the deadline shows the commission’s original order to be flawed. Carriers said the stay provides little help.
The 700 MHz auction likely will close within days. The end was expected as early as Wednesday by Wireless Strategy, which has provided a daily, detailed update, but the auction continued at our deadline. At 214 rounds and counting, the 700 MHz auction outlasted the 2006 advanced wireless services auction, which closed after 161 rounds. Bids in the 700 MHz auction total nearly $20 billion.
Spectrum Bridge, building an online, real-time market for chunks of wireless spectrum, announced it has opened for business. The company was founded by the former management team of MeshNetworks, bought in 2004 by Motorola. The team refocused on the startup, which will allow online trading of secondary rights to spectrum. Spectrum Bridge is capitalizing on an FCC order allowing licensees to break up spectrum holdings to offer smaller chunks on the secondary market, Rick Rotondo, vice president of marketing, told us. “Say I had a license for 10 MHz for the whole state of Florida for 10 years, I could offer you a lease over your neighborhood in Florida for 5 MHz for the next two months,” he said. The company found that many potential customers tried unlicensed spectrum only to find it didn’t meet their needs, he said. “A lot of people can’t get Wi-Fi to work for them,” Rotondo said. “They really need licensed spectrum, either because of the interference free characteristics or because it allows them to put out high power.” He cited Orlando-Sanford Airport, that Florida region’s number two airport, which needs licensed spectrum to make its communication system work. Rotondo said licensees using the secondary market enjoy an advantage in that the FCC counts secondary market deployment against license build out requirements. The FCC secondary market order opened 5.5 GHz of spectrum to potential sale, he said. “With the conclusion of the 700 MHz auction, there will be no more spectrum that is suitable for mobile broadband applications left for the FCC to auction,” said Richard Licursi, CEO of Spectrum Bridge and former CEO of MeshNetworks. “Yet government and industry studies have shown that 80-94 percent of licensed wireless spectrum goes unused.”
FCC Chairman Kevin Martin still is not telling colleagues what he thinks the FCC should do if, as long expected, no bidder emerges in coming days with a bid meeting the $1.3 billion reserve on the 700 MHz D-block license. Commissioner Jonathan Adelstein told us Friday the FCC needs to overhaul its approach on the D-block.
The FCC, as expected, approved without dissent an order giving Sprint Nextel until March 5, 2009, to clear broadcast auxiliary service from spectrum that mobile satellite service operators want (CD March 6 p5). Sprint Nextel immediately said it may take the FCC up on a suggestion that another extension may be needed. The Association of Maximum Service Television, NAB and the Society of Broadcast Engineers joined the company in that declaration.