BRUSSELS -- European interest is rising in collective use of spectrum (CUS) for new wireless applications, speakers said Thursday at a European spectrum management conference. CUS is seen increasingly by regulators and major industry players as a way to spark innovation while lowering entry barriers, they said. But the approach remains controversial and faces regulatory challenges and push-back by incumbents.
An FCC proposal for a free broadband service through the advanced wireless services 3 auction would isolate the United States from the rest of the world, 3G Americas said in a filing at the FCC. Officials with the group, led by President Chris Pearson, met with Commissioners Michael Copps, Robert McDowell and Deborah Tate this week to make their case. They also met with the wireless advisor to Commissioner Jonathan Adelstein.
Tower operator SBA Communications (SAC) is expected to continue assertively adding towers, to the tune of about 700 this year, said a report from Gaffers & Company. SAC said it has bought 88 towers and built 20 in the first quarter, has acquired 40 since March 31, and has agreed to buy up to 579 more. Gaffers expects all this acquisitions to close this year, increasing SAC’s tower total 12 percent. SAC reported total revenue of $109.9 million in the first quarter, beating Gaffers’ estimate of $109.1 million. Site-leasing revenue of $89.4 million was up 16.8 percent over the year earlier period and site leasing segment operating profit of $67.3 million was up 20.4 percent, the company said. The company expects to exceed the high end of the portfolio growth goals for 2008, said SAC President Jeffrey Stoops. Longer term, SAC is encouraged by the spectrum auctions and the growth in the wireless data service being delivered by its customers, Stoops said. “We believe that both will have a positive impact on future demand for our tower space and services,” he said.
U.K. public service broadcasters are meeting their public goals, with some gaps, the Office of Communications said Thursday. An Ofcom review aims to gauge the channels’ performance, market changes, prospects for delivery of public service content, audience needs and funding models. Overall, Britons see the main public broadcast programs as being of high quality, particularly in news and information, and the BBC remains “particularly valued,” Ofcom said. But viewers want more kids’ programs and shows on the nations and regions (Wales, Scotland, England and Northern Ireland) than they get from the five main channels, it said. The BBC probably will continue to contribute strongly to public broadcast, but for the other stations the picture could be less certain, Ofcom said. Long term, commercially-funded public broadcasters need clarity on their roles, and some channels may have delivery requirements waived, it said. Audiences want competition for the BBC and new platforms for viewing public programming, it said. Public broadcast is trying to address more needs, but has fewer resources outside the BBC to do so, it said. Preliminarily, Ofcom wants new funds found to end a decline in subsidies for commercial public broadcast and to maintain plurality in the delivery of content. Money could come from taxes, spectrum auctions or spectrum charging; BBC license fees; access to spectrum at below-market prices or other in-kind treatment; or industry levies, Ofcom said. Assuming the BBC still gets appropriate funding and remains the cornerstone of U.K. public broadcast, the key questions are whether some or all existing commercially funded public broadcasters keep their special roles in delivery of public service content, and whether broadcasters should have access to money beyond the BBC’s. Comments due June 19 -- PSBReview@ofcom.org.uk. The regulator debuted a discussion blog at ofcompsbreview.typepad.com.
BRUSSELS -- EU lawmakers have doubts about European Commission (EC) plans for the digital dividend, members of the European Parliament said Tuesday at the Policy Tracker European Digital Dividend conference. Despite EC assurances that it doesn’t want total harmonization of spectrum at the EU level, MEPs are suspicious of forced coordination, they said, urging that the Commission take a light regulatory approach. Final EC proposals aren’t expected until year’s end.
Mobile satellite services companies are more valuable to Wall Street as spectrum plays than as companies that offer services via spacecraft, several speakers from Wall Street told the Satellite Finance Forum Monday. That should lead to transactions to take advantage of that value, the speakers said.
The FCC is expected to face pressure from small and midsized carriers to open the D-block and sell it for commercial use rather than as a national public safety license, regulatory and industry sources tell us. Pressure is expected to be especially intense since C-block spectrum is selling at an average price of 76 cents per MHz per POP, compared to $2.66 for the B-block, sought in many cases by smaller carriers. Verizon Wireless is by all accounts the likely high bidder for the C-block and, sources say, small carriers are likely to complain that it’s getting the spectrum at a bargain price.
Fighting cuts proposed by President Bush for the eighth straight year, public broadcasters said they would welcome a more secure funding source like the ones enjoyed by their European counterparts. But station executives we interviewed said they hold little hope in the near term of a public- broadcasting trust fund or tax-based funding that would offer a consistent source of funding.
FCC inaction on a roaming “home market exclusion” devalues spectrum licenses, former Commissioner Harold Furchtgott-Roth said in a report commissioned by T-Mobile. T-Mobile’s filing came on the sixth day of the 700 MHz auction. Carriers seeking a change in that rule had hoped for agency action before the auction began.
While spectrum auctions are generally considered successful, it may be time for Congress to legislate improvements to the system, a new Congressional Research Service Report says. “Many have questioned whether auction policy should be supplemented more aggressively with other market-driven solutions,” the report said. Administration of the auction process might also be improved, it said. For the immediate future, Congress is likely to focus on questions such as reforming spectrum management and allocation mechanisms, the report said. “Some observers argue that a fully developed policy should take into account issues such as international competitiveness, the communications needs of public safety agencies and the military, the role of wireless technology in economic growth and the encouragement of new technologies that make spectrum use more efficient and beneficial to society as a whole,” the report said.