Alltel announced an asset sale and trade with U.S. Cellular to help it satisfy a major part of merger conditions imposed last summer by federal regulators in approving the firm’s merger with Western Wireless. Alltel gives U.S. Cellular 6 markets in Kan. and 9 markets in Neb. In return, Alltel gets 2 markets in Idaho and $50 million in cash. The deal helps Alltel meet the most significant condition imposed on the merger sale within 120 days of the Aug. 1 closing of Western Wireless’s Kan. and Neb. assets overlapping Alltel assets, an Alltel spokesman said Tues. Alltel still must sell off markets covering 4 counties in Ark., and the Cellular One brand. These assets are being run by a trustee pending a sale. U.S. Cellular said the Neb. and Kan. markets help the carrier strengthen its Midwest focus. The carrier gets some 125,000 retail customers, 193 cell sites, 15 company-owned retail locations and 89 authorized agents - in an area with about 1.4 million people. The markets Alltel gains in Idaho will make that carrier a bigger player in the state. Alltel previously picked up parts of northwestern Ida. from Western Wireless. It adds markets along U.S. 84 and U.S. 15 through heart of the state, taking in Twin Falls, Pocatello and Idaho Falls. The markets touch but aren’t really contiguous to markets Alltel already owns. The carrier adds 91,000 customers, 84 cell sites, 6 company-owned retail locations and 32 authorized agents in an area of some 500,000 potential customers.
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ATIS said it completed local service migration guidelines for wireline-wireless number porting. This month, an ATIS working group will start looking at another tricky matter: Porting numbers to and from VoIP phones. The ATIS number porting guidelines followed almost a year of weekly meetings: “It has been a tremendous problem. There weren’t any rules,” said Joe Scolaro, an ATIS mgr. who chaired the working group: “We tried to simplify the entire process, put it in an easy to understand document… It allows companies to have one process that they follow, and they all understand the other person’s process. Everybody agreed that if we follow this process we'll have the smooth transition of customers from the losing company to the winning company.” Scolaro said ATIS started examining porting issues when CLECs complained about problems porting numbers back and forth with ILECs. The guidelines were developed by a group representing ILECs, CLECs, wireless carriers and vendors, ATIS said: “The resulting guidelines provide clear step-by-step direction for various local service migration scenarios, including directory listings, local number portability, emergency services such as 911… basic data services and a variety of bundled and unbundled service arrangements.”
SBC significantly outspent cable TV interests in Tex. on its way to winning passage of controversial legislation that would allow SBC, Verizon and other competitors obtain a state-wide franchise as they seek to offer video in the state, according to a study. The legislation was still hung up in the office of Gov. Rick Perry (R) Fri. Texans for Public Justice, a watchdog group based in Austin, said lobbying records for the state show SBC to be “Austin’s leading lobby force by far” outspending cable operators who oppose the bill. “Its army of 123 lobbyists -- who reported up to $6.8 million in SBC fees -- gave this giant well over twice the lobby clout of runner-up TXU,” the group said in a report: “Verizon, the next-largest beneficiary of the new telecommunications bill, paid 38 lobbyists another $1.8 million. As such, SBC and Verizon lobbyists outnumbered the 150-member Texas House.” The report continued: “This phalanx left the leading force opposing this handout in the dust. The Texas Cable and Telecommunications Assn. paid 11 lobbyists up to $685,000. Time Warner Cable paid 14 lobbyists $505,000.” Other significant cable spenders included Cox, which spent as much as $275,000 on 6 contracts with lobbyists. Comcast tossed in $50,000 on lobbying in the state. An SBC spokesman said: “We are happy to represent the best interests of the citizens of Tex. anxious for choice in video providers.”
Auction 60 of lower 700 MHz spectrum, which starts today (Wed.), hasn’t drawn significant telecom industry interest. The 5 licenses offered, which went unsold in earlier 700 MHz auctions, cover smallish CMA areas in Puerto Rico. The lower 700 MHz spectrum, still encumbered by broadcasters, will have to be cleared through the DTV transition. But companies led by Aloha Partners, which has paid some $100 million for 700 MHz licenses, believe they can use it for robust wireless data networks. An industry source called the licenses on sale the “dregs from auction 49m” which elicited scant interest during that sale and which the FCC is trying to sell again. Aloha and 4 other carriers have qualified to bid.
A N.Y. Public Service Commission staff report said the $8.44 billion Verizon-MCI merger would lead to a significant increase in market power in the state. N.Y. presents the pending merger a key clearance hurdle. The PSC didn’t find similar concerns with the SBC-AT&T merger, at least in N.Y. Wall Street is watching N.Y. and other key states as big tests for the merger.
Alltel agreed Wed. to sell assets in 16 markets in Ark., Kan. and Neb. as a condition of its pending merger with Western Wireless to address Justice Dept. concerns. FCC approval of the merger is still pending and the Commission may impose separate conditions.
Cingular or Verizon Wireless likely would face the toughest fight if they emerged as the purchasers of T- Mobile, regulatory sources said Tues. Other potential players, including rumored suitor Vodafone, or less conventional wireless players like Comcast or even Microsoft, would likely have an easier time winning approval, they said.
The U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear a case brought by the EMR Network, which had tried to force the FCC to revamp its radio-frequency (RF) radiation guidelines. The decision was a victory for wireless carriers, who view the case as raising RF safety issues they see as invalid. The Supreme Court action appears to close a lengthy legal effort by the group to force the FCC to reopen its RF rules. The EMR Network petitioned the FCC in late 2001 seeking further review. The Commission turned the group down, saying in part it lacked funds for the studies. In its pleading to the Supreme Court, the group, renamed the EMR Policy Institute, said major health issues were at stake. “We believe that electromagnetic radiation (EMR), which includes the extremely low frequencies (ELF), the radio frequencies and microwave (MW) radiation, may be hazardous to life and may constitute a significant threat to public health,” the group said. “This belief is based on credible research, spanning decades of scientific inquiry. Our mission is to enhance local, regional, national, and international efforts to reduce, mitigate, and where possible, eliminate hazardous exposure to EMR.”
CHICAGO -- VoIP guru Jeff Pulver will file a petition for reconsideration challenging an FCC order giving all VoIP operators 120 days to make 911 service available to customers. Pulver told a Supercomm dinner here Wed. night the order misunderstands the changing nature of communications and the business models made possible by VoIP.
Verizon is turning to Capitol Hill for help after getting beaten in Tex. on cable franchising, Verizon Exec. Vp. Tom Tauke told us Tues. He said early Hill contact has been favorable, but the Senate, as usual, is hard to predict. Tauke called a video franchise bill more likely as part of broader telecom legislation than as a stand- alone measure.