T-Mobile closed Wednesday on its purchase of 700 MHz A-block spectrum from Verizon and is ready to deploy its first major chunk of low-band spectrum, T-Mobile US CEO John Legere said on a call with investors. T-Mobile reported record subscriber growth, adding 1.3 million postpaid subscribers in the first quarter, but Legere warned that T-Mobile is still much smaller than Verizon and AT&T, the nation’s two dominant wireless carriers.
Mobile Future filed a paper at the FCC questioning the net effect of bidding limits the Canadian government imposed in two recent spectrum auctions -- AWS spectrum in 2008 and 700 MHz spectrum this year. “The analysis concludes that exclusionary auction rules, such as spectrum set-asides or caps, prevent efficient competition and hinder investment in the state-of-the-art wireless networks and services that consumers are demanding,” Mobile Future said (http://bit.ly/1fltxzo). “These asymmetric rules essentially add up to public subsidies that are wasted on either established players who would have bid vigorously at full market value or lost to new entrants that, similar to the European experience with preferential rules, consistently fail.” The paper cites as an example Quebecor’s purchase of licenses outside its home market in Quebec. “Quebecor has made clear the spectrum, which had no other significant bidder, was acquired for its ‘advantageous price,’ with the CEO publicly stating that it remains uncertain if it would ’sit’ on the spectrum or ‘do something with it,'” Mobile Future said. “At this stage, few analysts expect Videotron, which is owned by Quebecor, to develop a network outside of Quebec."
The Minority Media and Telecom Council asked FCC officials to revise the agency’s designated entity (DE) rules in time for upcoming auctions, said a filing at the commission. “As a result of consolidation and an unstable regulatory climate after the 2006 DE Rule changes, DEs encountered, and continue to encounter, unique market entry barriers that prevent meaningful DE participation ... in spectrum auctions,” MMTC said (http://bit.ly/1m2Qk5H). “While the 2006 DE Rules were in effect, DE participation drastically declined. As the Commission prepares for the upcoming AWS and incentive auctions, it is critical for the FCC to send a clear signal to the wireless industry (and to the financial industry) that the DE program is important to the FCC and that the FCC is making improvements that will foster diversity and competition in spectrum ownership and provide the regulatory stability that is required for investment."
AT&T wants Congress to consider turning the Spectrum Relocation Fund into a general fund, it said in comments to the House Communications Subcommittee. “Under current law, these funds will eventually disappear from the SRF,” the carrier said, suggesting a change wherein the auction fund revenue that remains be “available for agencies to explore whether other spectrum bands could be made available for commercial use.” Both AT&T and Verizon advocated for spectrum auctions free of limits and other tweaks to congressional spectrum law.
The FCC wants as many carriers as possible to take part in the upcoming major auctions, FCC acting Wireless Bureau Chief Roger Sherman said Wednesday at the Competitive Carriers Association (CCA) spring conference in San Antonio. Sherman made clear that the FCC is giving strong consideration to spectrum aggregation limits for the TV incentive auction, which have been opposed by Verizon and AT&T.
The FCC defended its request for about $36 million more in funding for FY 2015 compared to current funding. The White House unveiled its proposed 2015 budget in early March and recommended Congress approve $375.38 million for the FCC (http://fcc.us/1hNuRs2). The House Appropriations Financial Services Subcommittee scrutinized the proposed budget during a hearing Tuesday, and FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler and Commissioner Ajit Pai testified on behalf of the agency.
Harris Broadcast is now Imagine Communications and GatesAir. Imagine, a media software company, will be headquartered in Dallas, and radio and TV transmission company GatesAir will be based in Cincinnati, Imagine said in a press release (http://bit.ly/PJnAk0). By optimizing the highest quality video stream for delivery over the variety of bandwidth that users consume, Imagine’s TV Everywhere solutions “will enable all networks to dynamically adapt to the amount of available bandwidth,” it said. GatesAir is prepared to “guide broadcasters in effectively navigating major technology evolutions,” like digital conversion and the upcoming spectrum auctions, Imagine said.
Verizon sharply criticized a Sprint proposal for a weighted spectrum screen for the FCC to use in weighing deals that include the acquisition of spectrum. “On the eve of the FCC adopting rules that will govern two spectrum auctions, Sprint has proposed a new, allegedly ‘easy to implement,’ spectrum screen that continues to ignore the biggest defect in the Commission’s application of the spectrum screen: the exclusion of 138 MHz of 2.5 GHz spectrum,” Verizon said in a filing (http://bit.ly/1lvSMx4). “Sprint proposes to apply complicated calculations to various spectrum bands on an urban, suburban, and rural basis to create a ‘weighted’ spectrum screen that, unsurprisingly, decreases the weight of Sprint’s 147 MHz of 2.5 GHz spectrum holdings to 11.1 MHz, at most.” Sprint made its proposal last month (http://bit.ly/1ep8aXt). “Sprint’s proposal would weight spectrum based on the cost to deploy and operate using that band, recognizing the reality that low-band spectrum is typically significantly more cost-effective to deploy than higher-frequency spectrum,” Sprint said at the time. The FCC is expected to take up spectrum aggregation rules at its May meeting (CD March 10 p1).
An order to make TV-station joint sales agreements (JSAs) attributable for calculating ownership caps and to prohibit joint negotiation in retransmission consent agreements will go on circulation Monday, the FCC said. Also on circulation then will be an FNPRM seeking comment on shared services agreements (SSAs) and FCC ownership policies that kicks off the 2014 quadrennial review of media ownership, the commission also said Thursday. The FNPRM proposes retaining the current dual-network rule and the local radio rule, tentatively concludes that cross-ownership rules for newspapers and TV stations should remain, and asks whether to eliminate rules against newspaper/radio and the radio/TV combinations rule “in favor of reliance on the local radio and local television rules,” a senior commission official told reporters Thursday. Broadcasters criticized the draft order, while pay-TV interests seeking changes to retrans rules cheered it.
The White House included provisions on school and rural broadband, spectrum license fees, the FCC’s USF and more in its proposed $3.9 trillion 2015 budget, partially revealed Tuesday in a 218-page document and requiring the approval of Congress (http://1.usa.gov/1c5yFWg). It would include a $56 billion Opportunity, Growth, and Security Initiative, which promises funding toward various goals in this sphere. The administration will roll out its budget in two phases, the first of which started Tuesday, and then post some other parts a week later. Congressional Republicans have already complained of the broader details.