FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski is expected to circulate within the next few weeks a long-awaited order on location accuracy rules for wireless, based on proposals by AT&T and Verizon Wireless and incorporating changes sought in by T-Mobile, industry and FCC officials said. Last week, The Association of Public-Safety Communications Officials International (APCO) and the National Emergency Number Association (NENA) filed a letter at the commission endorsing the tweaks sought in a June 16 letter by T-Mobile to AT&T’s proposal for GSM-based carriers. The Public Safety Bureau has started to brief eighth-floor officials on the order.
CTIA questioned whether the FCC can get complete, accurate data if it moves forward on a proposal to test mobile broadband speeds. AT&T called measuring the speeds a “daunting task” more difficult than testing fixed connections, as the commission plans to do in a study to be run by SamKnows. Verizon Wireless questioned what would be gained if the FCC “involves itself” in performance testing. But Google encouraged the FCC to push forward, saying accurate information is critical to consumers.
Carriers face “economic” regulation if not “price” regulation under the broadband classification scheme proposed by FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski as the “third way” alternative, Commissioner Robert McDowell said Thursday. McDowell told a Phoenix Center conference on the broadband gap that uncertainty in the markets increased right after Genachowski’s speech in September when he announced the commission would move forward on net neutrality rules.
Public interest groups led by the New America Foundation said the FCC should impose full disclosure requirements on wireless carriers in the commission’s “bill shock” inquiry. The wireless market is competitive and no new regulations are required, CTIA and carriers said. Consumer & Government Affairs Bureau Chief Joel Gurin said in May that the results of an FCC survey found bill shock a major concern for wireless subscribers (CD May 27 p1).
The FCC is not listening to public safety officials as it pushes forward on a plan to auction the 700 MHz D-block for commercial use while giving public safety agencies priority access to other spectrum in that band, said Charles Dowd, deputy chief of the New York City Police Department. He spoke Tuesday during a debate with FCC Public Safety Bureau Chief Jamie Barnett on a National Public Radio program in Washington. Barnett disagreed sharply. The argument presages the reaction commission officials could face next month at APCO’s annual meeting in Houston.
Free Press took its objections to closed-door meetings at the FCC to discuss key broadband issues (CD June 17 p1) to the readers of The Washington Post, running a full-page ad in the paper Wednesday. The group has been generally supportive of FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski in the past. Public interest group officials told us they are unhappy they are not at the table as a possible deal is discussed at the agency.
The FCC, as expected, approved the transfer of spectrum licenses covering 79 markets in 18 states from Verizon Wireless to AT&T, fulfilling a condition imposed on Verizon by regulators when it acquired Alltel in 2008. Commissioner Michael Copps said the order highlights the “continuing unacceptable state” of telecom service in most of Indian country.
Public interest groups on both sides of the net neutrality and broadband reclassification debates said the FCC should release full details of closed-door meetings that started Monday at the FCC with various industry players to discuss a possible compromise on how to give the FCC authority over broadband, without changing how carriers are regulated. While the first meeting was aimed at possibly providing advice to Congress on legislation, many key lawmakers also had not been told beforehand, Hill sources said.
USTelecom President Walter McCormick sharply criticized the FCC Tuesday for proposing net neutrality rules that could potentially keep carriers from passing the cost of broadband to anyone but subscribers. McCormick, who keynoted at the NextGenWeb conference in Washington, also warned that driving down prices won’t be enough on its own to lead to universal adoption, and expressed deep concern about the broadband reclassification inquiry the commission launched last week.
The reason some Americans don’t or won’t subscribe to broadband has nothing to do with FCC policies, Phoenix Center Chief Economist George Ford said Monday during a debate sponsored by the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation. Some don’t subscribe because they don’t want broadband in their homes, Ford said. Others can’t because of costs.