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.
FCC tests of gear for showing that devices can access the Internet using TV white spaces without causing broadcasters harmful interference are taking longer than expected. They continue after six weeks. The FCC hasn’t set a timetable or added information about field tests. Those are to begin after bench tests end at the commission’s Columbia, Md., lab.
The FCC was expected at our deadline to approve an order giving Sprint Nextel until March 5, 2009, to clear broadcast auxiliary service from spectrum that mobile satellite service operators want. After obtaining several delays, Sprint faced a Wednesday deadline for finishing that process. But the commission gave the carrier another year rather than vote an additional short delay.
With Verizon Wireless expected to emerge as top bidder for C-block spectrum in the 700 MHz auction, debate persists on a key question - how significant is a requirement that the winning bidder provide an “open platform” for applications and devices? Verizon has committed to open its networks. Critics say the carrier could get the spectrum on the cheap with only a requirement that lives up to commitments already made. The debate likely will intensify in coming weeks after the FCC names the 700 MHz auction winners.
Public safety groups asked the FCC to examine the responsibilities carriers and public safety answering points have regarding 911 calls from old phones no longer part of a valid service plan. PSAP officials complain they're inundated with prank calls made using old phones that can’t be traced since carriers still allow 911 calls from the phones. Tennessee officials say PSAPs there had to deal with more than 10,000 of the calls in a single three-month period.
Qualcomm lost a key court case in the United Kingdom in its long-running battle with Nokia over patents. It was the second loss for Qualcomm in a week, after the U.S. International Trade Commission last week rejected Qualcomm’s petition for review of a December decision that Nokia doesn’t infringe three alleged Qualcomm patents. Both companies are scheduled to square off this summer in Delaware as a court there holds what’s expected to be a hearing consolidating various lawsuits and countersuits.
The FCC published three white papers examining possible cutting-edge ways to handle fights over whether spectrum should be offered by the FCC for licensed or unlicensed use. Among them is a hybrid approach calling for the FCC to hold off imposing charges until a spectrum band gets. “This forms a basis for a possible new class of spectrum allocation -- spectrum that’s free until there’s congestion,” an agency source said. “We want to take the best of both worlds.” The source said the research examines “ways to reduce the losses society incurs through congestion.” Industry sources said the papers appear, in part, to lay the groundwork for an auction of TV white spaces. The FCC hasn’t decided on about future use of the white spaces and whether any of the spectrum would be offered in an auction. An agency source called the papers theoretical and not concerned with any particular spectrum band. The three were the first to be published in a series of papers that the Office of Strategic Planning and Policy Analysis started in 2003. Among the papers is “A Market-Based Approach to Establishing Licensing Rules: Licensed versus Unlicensed Use of Spectrum” and “Modeling the Efficiency of Spectrum Designated to License Use and Unlicensed Operations.” They were written by FCC economists Mark Bykowsky and William Sharkey and Mark Olson, an economist at George Mason University.
CTIA is proposing “best practices” on privacy rules for location-based services (LBS), such as applications that track caller location to provide weather alerts, driving directions, traffic updates and concierge services. Sources said Thursday that LBS privacy could emerge as a major issue, comparable to the FCC’s focus on pretexters, who lie to obtain calling records. In 2002, the FCC rejected a request by CTIA for LBS regulations.
The FCC approved 5-0 an order on cellphone hearing aid compatibility rules that largely adopts a June consensus plan from the Alliance for Telecommunications Industry Solutions. In a key change from a version circulated weeks ago, the order does not exclude Wi-Fi-enabled phones from the list of phones deemed compatible with hearing aids (CD Feb 8 p1).