The White House waded into one of the biggest issues facing the FCC and Chairman Tom Wheeler as it finalizes rules for the incentive TV auction -- whether the FCC should impose restrictions limiting bidding by Verizon Wireless and AT&T. Tom Power, deputy chief technology officer for telecommunications, said the whole administration supports a controversial April filing at the commission on spectrum aggregation and competition (CD April 15 p7) by the Department of Justice’s Antitrust Division. But Power also indicated that the White House wasn’t trying to tell the FCC what to do. Power spoke at a forum sponsored by the New America Foundation.
The top FirstNet official defended the progress the public national network team has made despite doubts and uncertainty. Sam Ginn became FirstNet board chairman in August 2012 and acknowledged the many challenges since then, speaking Thursday before the House Communications Subcommittee. Money is a constant consideration, as is outreach, Ginn said, cautioning that expectations can’t always be met.
While the IP transition could see action first, the incentive auction of broadcast TV spectrum remains one of the highest priorities for FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler, a senior commission official said Wednesday. The auction remains the single issue on which Wheeler is spending the most time, the official said. Some industry observers feared a slight pivot on Wheeler’s part in recent days, highlighted by last Thursday’s blog post promising action in January on the transition (CD Nov 30 p1).
The House Communications Subcommittee is inviting all five FCC members for a December hearing, said Chairman Greg Walden, R-Ore. He hasn’t met FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler or Republican Commissioner Mike O'Rielly, both confirmed earlier this month, he told reporters Thursday night. Walden emphasized the changes to the video market and an upcoming hearing on FirstNet, touching on a wide range of topics during the news briefing. Also of concern are the FCC’s spectrum auctions and the agency’s operations under Wheeler. The hearings on FCC oversight and FirstNet were expected (CD Oct 18 p3).
The PCS H-block auction will take place as planned in January, FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler said emphatically following his first meeting as chairman Thursday. The comments come days after both Sprint and T-Mobile made clear they were taking themselves out of contention for H-block spectrum, leaving Dish Network as the one self-identified competitor (CD Nov 14 p4). Wheeler said he still expected a competitive auction. Initial applications to participate in the auction are due at the commission Friday.
AT&T Mobility CEO Ralph de la Vega said at a Wells Fargo conference Wednesday that the carrier will be an active participant in spectrum auctions set for 2014 “and beyond,” Wells Fargo analyst Jennifer Fritzsche said in an email to investors. De la Vega said AT&T is comfortable with its current spectrum position, but he believes it’s “absolutely necessary to acquire more spectrum,” Frizsche said. AT&T currently predicts its own LTE network will be completed in summer 2014.
The FCC does not need to impose spectrum aggregation limits in order to shore up competition, Mobile Future said in a white paper released Friday. “There is no evidence that continuing to allow all wireless companies the opportunity to fully participate in spectrum auctions has prevented smaller carriers from acquiring the spectrum they need to compete,” the group said (http://bit.ly/HLzF4r). “There is an abundance of evidence from prior auctions and secondary market transactions that the FCC’s current approach of conducting case-by-case reviews of spectrum holdings has successfully balanced the public interest in encouraging a vibrant, innovative mobile marketplace and promoting a broad distribution of spectrum licenses."
AT&T and T-Mobile have long been at odds over spectrum aggregation limits in the incentive auction of TV spectrum, but both companies found something to agree on this week: that the FCC should at least examine caps in the 700 MHz auction in New Zealand. T-Mobile initially cited the auction as evidence in support of its arguments for limits in the incentive auction (http://bit.ly/1d52UJ4). AT&T Vice President Joan Marsh said there are stark differences between the New Zealand rules and limits sought by T-Mobile. “T-Mobile seeks a limit on all low band spectrum holdings, not just the spectrum newly available at auction,” Marsh wrote in a blog post (http://bit.ly/1biQQma). “New Zealand crafted generally applicable limits that apply only to the spectrum being sold.” T-Mobile’s proposal would also “skew the auction in its favor by limiting only those bidders that exceed its newly-proposed low band cap -- namely AT&T and Verizon Wireless,” Marsh said. “By contrast, New Zealand’s approach treats all bidders equally by imposing a limit on the amount of spectrum any one bidder can acquire.” On Friday, T-Mobile Vice President Kathleen Ham responded on her company’s blog. “AT&T this week acknowledged for the first time that, indeed, it is comfortable with upfront spectrum caps for auctions,” she said (http://bit.ly/1c5Y2lR). “That represents huge progress for AT&T, which has been arguing for months against any limits for the upcoming 600 MHz low-band auction. Although AT&T takes a shot at the filing that pointed out that New Zealand has joined most of the industrialized world in using aggregation limits in spectrum auctions to promote competition, spur innovation and stimulate economic growth, the key take-way from Joan Marsh’s blog is that upfront auction caps, if applied in a fair, nondiscriminatory manner, would be acceptable.”
The incoming team of FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler is “a senior staff team with deep substantive knowledge of telecom policy and a thorough understanding of the FCC’s inner workings,” Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., said in a statement Tuesday night (http://1.usa.gov/178r3dM). “With this team, he will be able to hit the ground running on the significant issues facing the agency, including strengthening E-Rate, the first-ever voluntary spectrum auctions to fund the first responder communications network, and shaping the ongoing evolution of our communications networks.” Wheeler was sworn in as chairman Monday and announced his staff choices then as well as initial plans to potentially overhaul FCC process (CD Nov 5 p1). House Communications Subcommittee Chairman Greg Walden, R-Ore., applauded Wheeler for taking on such considerations, while calling for congressional action. “I welcome Chairman Wheeler’s openness to looking at ways to improve transparency and accountability for the American people and those that have business before the commission,” Walden said (http://1.usa.gov/1grNuTJ). “In the meantime, we will continue working to reach bipartisan agreement on the FCC Process Reform Act, and similarly hope that the Senate will soon take up the FCC Consolidated Reporting Act, which was unanimously approved by the House this summer."
Sprint is making substantial progress on the buildout of the 2.5 GHz spectrum the carrier got from Clearwire through its Network Vision LTE project, CEO Dan Hesse said on an earnings call Wednesday. Later in the day, Sprint unveiled its new Sprint Spark brand, which it said would offer connection speeds as fast as 1 GHz, with initial speeds of 50-60 Mbps. Sprint acknowledged it lost 360,000 contract subscribers in Q3, which was less than expected based on a consensus estimate. Some of the losses were tied to the carrier’s shutting down its Nextel network on June 30, the company said. Sprint reported net profits of $383 million, compared with a $767 million loss the same quarter last year.