Some wireless carriers may have tough rules to protect their systems, but that doesn’t mean the FCC should mandate net neutrality, at least now, a venture capitalist and the CEO of a high-tech wireless startup told an FCBA wireless lunch Thurs. Neither endorsed Skype’s call for a Carterfone rule for wireless (CD Feb 22 p6).
Skype asked the FCC to impose Carterfone requirements on wireless carriers, giving customers the right to attach any device of their choice to a wireless network. Skype asked the FCC for a rulemaking to evaluate wireless carriers’ practices in light of the Carterfone ruling.
DoJ and FCC approval of the Sirius-XM merger is considered likely but not a slam dunk, judging from early readings by analysts and lawyers who follow the satellite industry. DoJ is expected to give the merger the closest scrutiny. House Telecom Subcommittee Chmn. Markey (D-Mass.) said the merger deserves close review. At the FCC, the International Bureau, which rarely handles high profile orders, will take the lead under new Chief Helen Domenici.
M2Z’s proposal to offer a 10 MHz national broadband network in the 2155-2175 MHz spectrum band is progressing as planned, and the future of the proposal now in the FCC’s hands, CEO John Muleta said Fri. “The status update is that the FCC accepted the application Jan. 31,” said Muleta, who spoke to a Progress & Freedom Foundation seminar on the proposal. “We think it’s a solid application and think it’s in the public interest and makes the best use of the spectrum. But I'm going to decline to make any predictions.”
Industry and environmental groups jointly asked the FCC to study the “conspicuity” of steady burning red obstruction sidelights, as the FCC contemplates new rules for wireless towers aimed at curbing bird deaths. Among the rules under consideration at the FCC is a requirement that celltower operators install white blinking lights to protect migrating birds. The groups ask the FAA to determine whether red steady lights can be eliminated altogether without compromising air safety.
A paper by Tim Wu of Columbia U. Law School, released Wed. but widely covered in advance, will reinvigorate debate at the FCC and in Congress on whether to apply net neutrality principles to wireless. The paper, published at an FTC summit on broadband competition policy, comes as the FCC considers reclassifying wireless broadband as an information service.
The American Bird Conservancy and the Forest Conservation Council failed to show a direct connection between bird deaths and wireless towers, a group of industry organizations told the U.S. Appeals Court, D.C. as it takes up the environmental groups’ case seeking a moratorium on Gulf Coast tower construction.
Verizon Wireless doesn’t have a proposal to offer a purported 12 MHz alternative to Cyren Call’s proposed 30 MHz public safety broadband network, Verizon Exec. Vp Public Affairs Tom Tauke said Mon. Tauke’s remarks confirm that while Verizon has floated a proposal, it was never fully developed into a working plan.
Wireless carriers, broadcasters and others seem to face little risk that the U.S. Appeals Court, D.C. will overturn the Deficit Reduction Act (DRA) and with it the Feb. 2009 deadline for the DTV transition and 700 MHz auction, judging by the judges questions in oral arguments Fri. Public Citizen contends the law is unconstitutional because the House and Senate bills weren’t reconciled.
A N. American Numbering Council (NANC) working group trying to work out differences between wireless and wireline carriers on porting issues has deadlocked with little prospect of compromise, sources said. In Dec., T-Mobile and Sprint Nextel asked the FCC to rule that LECs can’t impose what they call unnecessary hurdles to number porting.