The FCC Thursday hit Sprint Nextel, Alltel and U.S. Cellular with forfeitures totaling $2.825 million for failing to meet a Dec. 31, 2005, deadline to have 95 percent of their subscribers have location-capable handsets for E-911 calls. The fines were as expected. In January, the FCC denied the carriers’ requests for waivers, referring their cases to the Enforcement Bureau.
The FCC Wednesday released an order allowing the agency to come down hard on those trying to defraud the Universal Service Fund program. Under previous rules, the FCC could “debar” from participation in the program only those found to have defrauded the schools and libraries program. The rule change expands enforcement throughout the program. “Debarment of applicants, service providers, consultants, or others who have defrauded the USF is necessary to protect the integrity of the universal service program,” the order said. “We do not find any reason to exclude the high-cost, rural health care, or low-income programs from our debarment rules.”
Ten public interest groups told the FCC that M2Z’s proposal for a nationwide, free wireless broadband network at 2.1 GHz is attractive but has too many failings to support. Instead, the groups urged the agency to examine making the spectrum available for unlicensed use or through a license but with strict conditions imposing open access requirements. Google made similar arguments in a separate filing with the agency. The comments added to a flurry of activity at the FCC on an AWS III auction, short for advanced wireless services, of 2.1 GHz spectrum. FCC Chairman Kevin Martin late last week began circulating a proposed rulemaking on rules for an auction (CD Aug 28 p1).
GE Healthcare, which makes medical telemetry devices that operate in TV broadcast spectrum, warned the FCC that portable devices operating in nearby spectrum could cause harmful interference. GE plans to elaborate on its concerns during upcoming meetings at the FCC. The company has made a number of filings at the commission on the white spaces proceeding, the latest in reply comments this week on FCC Office of Engineering and Technology tests.
FCC Chairman Kevin Martin began circulating among fellow commissioners a notice of proposed rulemaking describing rules for auctioning the 2.1 GHz spectrum. M2Z sought the spectrum through a license the commission would grant without auction. The commission is expected to portray the spectrum sale as the third in a series of advanced wireless services auctions.
Carriers would have a year to get into compliance with tougher location accuracy standards for wireless E- 911, under an item circulating on the 8th floor and set for a vote at the September agenda meeting, sources said Friday. The year deadline is even more aggressive than wireless carriers feared as the order was being drafted. The order largely adopts a change the Association of Public Safety Communications Officials sought. The group wanted to require carriers to meet accuracy standards at the public safety answering point level rather than based on statewide averaging.
Other contenders for 2.1 GHz spectrum say the FCC’s expected rejection of M2Z’s application shouldn’t mean the end for their proposals. M2Z’s plan has received the most attention. But other companies including NetfreeUS, NextWave, TowerStream, Open Range, McElroy Electronics and Commnet Wireless have rival proposals before the FCC to use the spectrum to offer wireless broadband.
The FCC is preparing to release notices of apparent liability against Sprint Nextel, Nextel Partners, Alltel and U.S. Cellular for failing to meet a location-capable handset requirement. By law, the FCC must act by Aug. 31 on at least one of the carriers, and Chairman Kevin Martin hopes to release all the notices at the same time, sources said. The amount of the penalties isn’t set.
The FCC should embrace a hybrid tack on E-911 location technology, combining the benefits of network- and handset- based technologies, to get truly improved accuracy, Polaris Wireless and TruePosition told the agency in comments. FCC Chairman Kevin Martin noted a hybrid solution’s potential when the FCC sought comments on making wireless and VoIP E- 911 more accurate in a rulemaking notice approved in June.
The next FCC agenda meeting is Sept. 11, according to the agency Web site. For the anniversary of the 2001 terror attack, the meeting is expected to include major public safety orders. Chief among them is an order being circulated by Chairman Kevin Martin and addressing Association of Public Safety Communications Officials claims that carriers should be held to identification requirements measured on a public safety answering point (PSAP) basis, not statewide averaging.