NAB said Monday recent problems with a Microsoft sensing device undergoing tests at the FCC lab in Columbia, Md., show that unlicensed portable devices can’t be safely used in the TV white spaces. High-tech companies quickly said the failure was meaningless and should have no effect on pending agency decisions on future use of the white spaces. The argument comes at a critical time, with most FCC commissioners saying they're awaiting the test results before deciding the best use for the white spaces.
The FCC cleared T-Mobile’s $2.4 billion acquisition of Suncom Wireless, saying in an order that the merger won’t hurt competition. T-Mobile and Suncom expect the merger to close this month instead of in April, as they had predicted, they said. Unlike its handling of other mergers, the FCC didn’t impose a Universal Service Fund cap.
FCC Chairman Kevin Martin circulated an order approving T-Mobile’s acquisition of SunCom Wireless for $2.4 billion in cash and assumed debt, sources said. The merger order isn’t controversial like those in other recent wireless mergers, such as AT&T-Dobson. The purchase strengthens T-Mobile’s coverage in the southeastern states. Suncom, with 1.1 million customers, owns GSM/GPRS/EDGE networks in Tennessee, Georgia, North and South Carolina, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Stanford Group analyst Michael Nelson said that under the agreement the merger isn’t expected to close before April 15 even if the FCC approves it immediately.
The Wireless Bureau is proposing that all Wi-Fi-enabled phones -- including those that can also be used to place standard calls on a cellular network -- be excluded from the list of phones compatible with hearing aids, sources said Thursday. The action could discourage carriers from adding Wi-Fi phones in their stores and set back efforts to open wireless networks, sources said.
FCC Commissioners Michael Copps and Jonathan Adelstein accused the FCC of acting in haste, without doing the required competitive analysis, in approving AT&T’s acquisition of 700 MHz spectrum from Aloha Partners. Commissioners voted 4-1 to approve the acquisition Jan. 25 (CD Jan 28 p1), but the order was not released until late Monday. Copps dissented, while Adelstein issued a concurrence. The FCC’s three Republican members didn’t issue statements.
The NTIA said Tuesday it seeks participants for its long-awaited spectrum testbed to test the effectiveness of dynamic spectrum access technology. Companies that want to take part must notify the agency by Feb. 28.
The CTIA and the TIA urged the FCC to adopt without major change recommendations by the Commercial Mobile Service Alert Advisory Committee for emergency alerts sent cellphones and other wireless devices. Carriers and gear makers particularly opposed proposals that carriers be capable of broadcasting alerts to areas smaller than counties.
Auction bidding for the C-block with its open-access mandate has trailed that for the A and B blocks considerably. Meanwhile, Verizon Wireless apparently made a move on the C- block throughout Monday’s bidding, launching a high bid for the C-block, which analysts generally agreed had been headed into Google’s hands.
The market, not the FCC, prompted recent carrier actions to open networks to new devices, FCC Commissioner Robert McDowell said in comments on the agency’s latest and longest- awaited edition of its annual wireless-competition report. McDowell said that in the report, released Monday, the FCC makes far too much of benefits to competition that it claims resulted from what he called “untested” open-access mandates imposed for some spectrum licenses offered in the 700 MHz auction.
The FCC probably will grant an additional extension of the broadcast auxiliary service clearing deadline, though no order had circulated on the 8th floor by Friday, sources said. The deadline is Monday. The relocation was to be completed in September, but Sprint Nextel and broadcasters say it will take until late 2009. The FCC has extended the deadline twice. MSS operators need access to spectrum local broadcasters use for electronic news gathering. Because it was swept up in the 800 MHz band reconfiguration, Sprint is paying to move the auxiliary service off the spectrum that MSS wants to use. “Sprint and the broadcasters have submitted a comprehensive plan that seeks to complete the BAS transition by August of 2009 and all parties are executing against that plan to complete the transition while we await the FCC’s feedback,” Sprint said in a statement Friday. “Great strides have been made -- Las Vegas and Harrisburg, Pa., have completed the transition -- and we expect many more major markets to finish in the coming months.”