AT&T’s acquisition of Dobson Cellular likely faces few regulatory hurdles at the FCC or Justice Department, analysts and industry sources agreed Monday. AT&T announced a deal late Friday to buy Dobson for $2.8 billion. Dobson sells service to some 1.7 million customers under the Cellular One brand. Both use GSM-based technology, simplifying system integration. And Dobson has 850 MHz spectrum well-suited to serving rural areas, analysts said. AT&T and Dobsons hope to close the deal this year.
XM and Sirius wrongly claim they will be able to offer interoperable radios to subscribers if their merger is approved, the National Association of Broadcasters said. “The two… systems employ different RF frequencies, bandwidths, transport stream packet structures and, most significantly, different audio codecs,” said the engineering study, funded by NAB and written by Meintel, Sgrignoli, & Wallace. Lack of radios that can receive both satellite signals is among issues before regulators as they weigh the proposed merger (CD Apr 19 p2). It also is a sore point in regard to the XM-Sirius proposal on the Hill,
The Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) will ask the FCC to expand customer proprietary network information (CPNI) rules to cover handset manufacturers and not just carriers, Staff Counsel Melissa Ngo said Thursday during a Federal Communications Bar Association lunch. Meanwhile, Bennett Ross, chairman of the telephony practice at Wiley Rein, said parts of the CPNI rules approved by the FCC in March (CD March 15 p2) are causing major confusion for carriers.
XM and Sirius compete not only with one other but with “terrestrial radio, pre-recorded music devices, mobile phones, and fixed and mobile internet services,” economist and former FCC Commissioner Harold Furchtgott-Roth said. His new report addresses an issue on which the merger’s fate likely hinges: In terms of assessing market power, is satellite radio a unique market or part of a much larger world?
CTIA, AT&T, Verizon and Qwest told the FCC the record the agency has built through a notice of inquiry shows that equal access and nondiscrimination rules make no sense in a competitive world. But the National Association of State Utility Consumer Advocates (NASUCA) said the FCC should keep in mind that all comments opposing these requirements come from “mammoth” companies seeking weaker regulation.
The District of Columbia backed Fairfax County, Va., as it petitioned to have until July 29, 2010, to reband its 800 MHz channels. The completion deadline is June 26, 2008. Other area cities and counties are rallying behind Fairfax. The extension should apply to the entire national capital region (NCR), whose jurisdictions are “inseparable if the existing and necessary interoperability of NCR- jurisdiction public safety radio system is to be maintained,” D.C. said. “The past 20 years, these 14 national capital regional licensees have built one of the most advanced public safety radio systems in the United States, in terms of interoperability,” the city of Manassas, Va., said. “That interoperability will be interrupted unless the NCR licensees can coordinate the rebanding of these systems with due care and reasonable planning.”
From NASCAR to the NBA, sports industry and broadcaster representatives Tuesday began a full court press at the FCC and on Capitol Hill, describing what they call a major threat posed by an FCC proposal to open broadcast white spaces to unlicensed use. They called the effort the first coordinated outreach by all major sports against the white spaces move. The group explained that wireless connections loom far larger in sports than generally thought and face serious interference problems if unlicensed devices share the frequencies they use.
The Alliance for Telecommunications Industry Solutions (ATIS) called on the FCC to make major changes to its hearing-aid-compatibility (HAC) requirements for wireless handsets, which require that by Feb. 18, 2008, 50 percent of all handsets offered by carriers and manufacturers be rated as suitable for use with hearing aids. Instead, ATIS recommended that carriers and handset makers be required to offer an increasing number of suitable handsets. ATIS also recommended the FCC require more handsets than current rules dictate for use by those with the most severe hearing loss. “If adopted, this proposal will ensure that consumers with hearing loss receive the full benefit of a variety of wireless services while adequately addressing the complexities associated with operating digital handsets and hearing aids together,” ATIS said. “The current 50 percent requirement set forth in… the Commission’s rules present many challenges to providing hearing-aid compatible devices in a technology- neutral manner,” ATIS said: “In addition, the FCC’s existing rules require only a very small number of devices to be compatible with telecoil-equipped hearing aids, generally used by people with severe hearing loss.” ATIS noted that GSM carriers in particular would be hard pressed to meet the 50 percent mandate since the requirement is “either technologically not achievable or only achievable through the development of unmarketable products.” As an alternative to the 50 percent mandate ATIS recommends that the largest carriers be required to offer a minimum of eight HAC-enabled handsets rated M3 or better, or suitable for use with hearing aids, by Feb. 18, 2008. This would ramp up to 10 HAC-enabled handsets by Feb. 18, 2011. At the same time, large carriers would be required to offer more handsets rated T-3 or better, usable by those with severe hearing loss. Under current rules, carriers are required to offer two handset models for each air interface, GSM or CDMA, that offer T3-or-better functionality. Instead, ATIS said, the FCC should require that at least 33 percent of the total number of digital wireless handset models for each interface be rated at T3-or-better by Feb. 18, 2008. Carriers would have to ensure that they offer at least three T-3 rated handsets by Feb. 18, 2008, increasing to 10 by Feb. 18, 2011. ATIS proposes similar changes for handset manufacturers, lowering the mandated levels for M-3 rated handsets but raising it for T-3 rated sets. Under the current requirement, 50 percent of their handsets must meet the M3-or-better rating by Feb. 18, 2008. ATIS proposes lowering the requirement to 33 percent of handsets. But requirements for T-3 sets would be increased -- from a minimum of two per interface to 33 percent of their handset offerings by Feb. 18, 2011.
Fighting over the XM-Sirius merger is in a new phase, with both sides filibustering the FCC on why the merger should or should not be approved, with the satellite operators coming on more aggressively than in the past. Analysts differ on whether the deal is likely to pass regulatory muster.
Motorola, railroads, utilities, businesses and other users of the 150-512 MHz public land mobile radio (PLMR) agreed with New York City that the FCC sowed confusion in March in an order stating its intention to require users to convert to 6.25 kHz technology. In May, New York asked the FCC to agree to seek comment before mandating the transition. The FCC order is effective once the commission determines sufficient gear is available and is part of an initiative dating to 1995 to promote more efficient use of the bands.