The FCC asked the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit to reject a case brought against it by designated entity Council Tree, seeking to overturn the 700 MHz auction. Council Tree argued that the designated entity rules approved for the 700 MHz auction nearly guaranteed that the largest carriers won almost all licenses for sale in the auction. “Council Tree asks the court to nullify the 700 MHz auction, a step that would require the return of $19 billion from the U.S. Treasury and the cancellation of numerous spectrum licenses just as the innocent third parties that won them are planning to deploy wireless broadband service to the public,” the FCC said. The commission said the court should reject the appeal because it’s an “untimely challenge” to the FCC’s 700 MHz report and order “rather than a challenge to any action taken in the Order that is the nominal subject of Council Tree’s petition.” Council Tree challenges to the order “are insubstantial in any event” since designated entities are not guaranteed any “particular level of… success in wireless auctions,” the regulator said.
FCC Commissioner Deborah Tate has left the commission, as required with the end of the last Congress. Tate said in a statement that the FCC posted Monday that she’s returning full time to Nashville and plans to launch a mediation practice. “In cooperation with my fellow Commissioners, we have made history: implementing successful spectrum auctions, creating a new homeland security bureau, providing broadband grants for rural healthcare and overseeing the digital transition for television,” she said. “I am extremely proud of our work on behalf of children and families, for persons with disabilities and for spurring new investment and innovation.” Tate, a former Tennessee regulator, was sworn in as a commissioner Jan. 3, 2006.
Gerald Vaughan, 64, former deputy chief of the FCC Common Carrier Bureau and Wireless Bureau, died Saturday in Pennsylvania after an apparent heart attack. Before retiring in 2004, he led the team that developed the FCC spectrum auctions program. His wife and daughter survive. A funeral is scheduled for Dec. 13 in Scranton, Pa.
The FCC should impose a wireless spectrum aggregation cap to curb consolidation and top national carriers’ dominance, regional carriers said in Tuesday comments. The small, rural companies backed a Rural Telecommunications Group proposal to impose a 110 MHz limit county-by-county on all commercial terrestrial wireless spectrum below 2.3 GHz. But big carriers and others warned that a cap could stunt the growth of the wireless broadband industry.
The Bush administration, after months of speculation, released a letter raising questions about the free broadband proposal circulated by FCC Chairman Kevin Martin for the AWS- 3 band. The letter, by acting NTIA Administrator Meredith Baker, was sent to Rep. Michael Conoway, R-Texas. It touches on some concerns reportedly raised by Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez in a meeting at the White House. Baker says the administration believes spectrum auctions promote investment and innovation. “Auctions without price or product mandates create a level playing field,” the letter said. “Restrictions and conditions on spectrum use, however well-intentioned, are not the most effective or efficient way to encourage development of services or to assist under served areas.”
The telecom industry will feel ripples from the Wall Street meltdown, analysts said. The Street’s crisis mean less telecom spending and investment and may put some big telecom deals in doubt, they said. Major carriers were mute on the potential impact on their business. Monday, Lehman Bros. filed for bankruptcy protection and Merrill Lynch was bought. The huge American International Group was on the ropes Tuesday.
Legislation to speed adoption of electronic health records needs strong privacy and record-keeping provisions, House Ways and Means Subcommittee members said Thursday at a hearing. Chairman Pete Stark, D-Calif., said he plans soon to introduce a bill promoting adoption of a national health record system ensuring strong privacy protection for patient records. He and other subcommittee members said the House Commerce Committee bill (HR-6357) passed Wednesday by Commerce (CD July 24 p3) doesn’t offer a complete plan but is a start.
Minimizing regulation will speed advance of broadband and advanced mobile services, panelists said Wednesday at an Institute for Policy Innovation seminar. Rather than looking for ways to fill public coffers, policymakers should encourage companies to move into unserved areas, said IPI senior fellow Barry Aarons. Tax credits and other incentives are a better way to encourage broadband, Aarons said. The wireless market is growing faster than that for fixed landline services due to fewer controls, panelist Massimiliano Trovato, a fellow with Italy’s Instituto Bruno Leoni, said. But there is a trend toward placing conditions on spectrum auctions worldwide, Trovato said.
Federal agencies should get funding to hire more staff to handle relocating their systems if the government finds more federal spectrum that can be cleared for sale in future spectrum auctions, a working group of the Commerce Department’s Commerce Spectrum Management Advisory Committee (CSMAC) said. CMSAC Working Group 3 wants responsibility for spectrum clearing to be “centralized,” possibly within a single agency like NTIA. Acting Administrator Meredith Baker announced at the group’s meeting in San Jose, Calif., that NTIA is reconstituting the group, asking members to prepare a report on transition issues for the next presidential administration.
Small wireless carriers are lobbying federal lawmakers to pressure the FCC to address petitions for reconsideration filed last October calling for elimination of the in-market exclusion to the agency’s new automatic roaming rules. The campaign is bearing fruit, but FCC officials said they've heard nothing from Chairman Kevin Martin’s office about any rule change. The issue is gaining significance, sources say, given the Verizon Wireless’s proposed purchase of Alltel.