President Bush nominated Thomas Griffith of Brigham Young U., ex-Senate aide and ex-Wiley, Rein & Fielding, to seat on U.S. Appeals Court, D.C., replacing Patricia Wald, retired… Harris promoted Jeremy Wensinger to pres.-Bcst. Communications Div. and Larry Whitfield to pres.-Harris Technical Services… Elections at ATIS: Bill Smith of BellSouth to chmn. and Paul Lacouture of Verizon to treas… Changes at Broadband Wireless International, citing “alleged serious irregularities": Paul Harris, Benjamin Stanley and John Walsh leave company; New officers include Pres. Ronald Tripp, Secy. Keith McAllister, Treas. Michael Williams… Sean Erickson, ex-Dell, named MSS*Group CEO; board member David Walsh, One Equity Partners, moves up to chmn… Cox promotions: John Bell to dir.-Internet services engineering; Kevin Nichols to dir.-project planning & analysis… FCC attorneys Michael Engel and Jacqueline Spindler move to Enforcement Bureau Dispute Resolution Div… Mike Cleland moves from Midwest Div. vp. to vp-Dallas market, Comcast.
In response to stepped up wireless industry concerns over the “consensus plan” for 800 MHz last week (CD Feb 27 p1), Nextel called claims by Verizon Wireless “specious and unfounded.” Verizon Wireless told the FCC last week it would bid in an “immediate” auction of 1.9 GHz spectrum. This is among the bands that Nextel would receive under the consensus plan in exchange for giving up spectrum elsewhere to mitigate interference to public safety at 800 MHz. The plan is backed by the Assn. of Public Safety Communications Officials (APCO), PCIA and others. Verizon Wireless, in a letter to FCC Wireless Bureau Chief John Muleta, argued that public safety interference should be addressed by realigning the 800 MHz band without involving 1.9 GHz. CTIA and other wireless carriers have urged the FCC to consider alternatives to the consensus plan, including best practices measures for addressing interference. “For more than 2 years, CTIA, including its Bell-monopoly affiliated wireless members, have indulged in bullying tactics and spent millions of dollars lobbying to derail the consensus plan. They have pursued this agenda while offering no alternative to solve public safety radio interference and steadfastly working to divert attention from their own well-documented contributions to the problems of public safety interference,” Nextel said in a statement. “The failure to address this issue puts lives in danger every single day.” Countering what it said were misrepresentations about the value of the 1.9 GHz spectrum, Nextel disputed estimates that 10 MHz in this band is worth $7.2 billion. It said the highest amount ever bid for 10 MHz in this band was $3.3 billion in 1999, and that was never paid. “The highest amount ever received by the FCC for 10 MHz of spectrum at 1.9 GHz was in fact $1 billion,” it said. Nextel said that under the consensus plan, it would contribute 10.5 MHz of spectrum it had acquired since its founding. “Nextel was not a beneficiary in the FCC’s initial free spectrum allocations to the Regional Bell monopolies,” it said. In a letter to Congress members, the heads of APCO, the National Sheriffs’ Assn., the International Assn. of Chiefs of Police and the International Assn. of Fire Chiefs, said the consensus plan is “public safety’s plan.” Noting that some have characterized the proposal as crafted by Nextel for its own benefit, they said: “Nothing could be further from the truth.” Separately, Verizon Wireless late Thurs. submitted a more-detailed filing at the FCC outlining its concerns. “Removing the 1.9 GHz band from the consensus plan and auctioning it would allow the government (not a private party) to receive the substantial benefits that a nationwide block of clear, contiguous spectrum would bring at auction,” it said. Citing a legal memo prepared by Wiley Rein & Fielding, Verizon Wireless said it demonstrated the FCC had “full legal authority” to realign the 800 MHz band and direct Nextel to pay relocation expenses incurred by public safety licensees. The memo also said Nextel “can be made to pay the causally related ’second step’ relocation costs of the business and industrial users who would be moved as a direct result of Nextel’s relocation of the public safety licensees.”
The law firm Wiley Rein & Fielding gave the FCC a 24- page background report on the many VoIP regulatory activities in Washington, the states and abroad. “VoIP at the Crossroads” isn’t related to particular clients, but is intended as a guide for those following the issues, said WRF attorney and former NTIA Dir. Nancy Victory. The guide was filed ex parte Feb. 25 in WC Doc. 04-28, 03-266 and several others.
3G Americas board promoted Chris Pearson to pres… Steve Clawson, ex-AT&T, named Dittus Communications vp… Heather Vincent, ex-MSNBC, named BET Nightly News exec. producer… Richard Wiley named Republican Lawyer of the Year by Republican National Lawyers Assn.
With President Bush’s signing of a 39% national broadcast ownership cap law, the 3rd U.S. Appeals Court, Philadelphia, is wondering about its role in the media ownership fight and whether the case it’s considering, or parts of it, are moot. In a letter to the FCC, Media Access Project (MAP) and other parties, the court asked for responses by noon Feb. 2 on how they believed their cases were affected by the new law.
Peter Chrisanthopoulos resigns as Pappas Telecasting pres.-CEO, 3 months after taking job… New partners at Wiley, Rein & Fielding: Helgi Walker, ex-FCC and ex-White House; Jennifer Hindin, specializing in FCC, ITU and satellite issues… Robert Mayer, ex-BearingPoint, named dir., N.Y. office of Telecom… Susan Swenson resigns as pres.-COO, Leap Wireless International… Roger Manka, ex- Commworks, named pres.-worldwide sales, Andrew Corp… Changes at Showtime: Matthew Duda promoted to exec. vp- acquisitions, planning & distribution; Exec. Vp-Programming Peter Keramidas leaves to pursue other opportunities… Cincinnati Bell promoted Brian Ross to CFO… John Abbot, ex- Morgan Stanley, appointed senior vp-CFO, Insight… Joshua Nathan advanced to gen. counsel, Educational Bcstg. Corp., succeeding Eleanor Applewhaite, retired… New CTAM officers: Chmn. Len Fogge, Showtime; Vice Chmn. David Watson, Comcast; Secy. Douglas Holloway, Universal TV; Treas. Joe Rooney, Cox; dirs. Kevin Leddy, Time Warner; David Krone, NCTA; and Kathleen Dore, Rainbow… Andrew Spence, ex-SBC, appointed dir.-business-to-business sales, Cingular Wireless… New partners at Andrew Seybold Group: Robert Chapin, Wireless Marcom; Robert Hirsh, ex-Verizon; James Hobbs, ex-BellSouth.
The Minority Media & Telecom Council (MMTC) asked the FCC to reconsider a decision that MMTC said eviscerated the Commission’s Distress Sale Policy, which was designed to encourage minority ownership. The case involved Family Bcstg., licensee of WSTX(AM) and WSTX(FM) in Christiansted, Virgin Islands. The Audio Div. of the FCC Media Bureau concluded that the company’s conduct was so egregious that it wouldn’t allow Family to sell the licenses under the policy, apparently feeling that the case should go to a hearing, where Family could lose everything and anyone -- potentially not a minority -- could win access to the spectrum. Family has filed an application asking for review by the full Commission and MMTC filed an amicus curiae brief last week in Family’s support, saying the public policy dimensions were more important than the minutiae of the case itself.
Verizon won a major turnaround Fri. in its suit against the RIAA as the U.S. Appeals Court, D.C., agreed the ISP needn’t comply with subpoenas to identify suspected peer-to- peer file sharers. Chief Judge Douglas Ginsburg wrote the 3- 0 opinion. It overturned the U.S. Dist. Court, D.C., which had ruled Sec. 512(h) of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) required ISPs to comply with subpoenas from copyright owners, even if the ISPs weren’t storing infringing content on their servers. Ginsberg granted Verizon’s request to stay the Dist. Court ruling. The other judges were John Roberts and Ann Williams.
Communications lawyers and public interest advocates said broadcasters could face increased scrutiny when applying for license renewals over the next couple of years. After years of relatively lax enforcement, there are several signs that broadcasters could face stricter enforcement, they said, including: (1) Creation of a Localism Task Force that grew largely from the FCC’s embattled media ownership rule. (2) Calls from members of Congress and Democratic commissioners to examine whether stations are violating public service requirements. (3) Recent record indecency fines against a radio broadcaster. (4) Dozens of fines for public file violations.
FCC Wireless Bureau promoted Blaise Scinto to special counsel for spectrum policy in the Office of the Bureau Chief… Consumer Electronics Assn. named Dawn Rhine, ex- Newspaper Assn. of America, dir. of the International CES show, replacing Donna Deutsch, who left in Aug… Law student Jason Williams named special asst. to FCC Comr. Martin; Lori Alexiou, ex-Wiley, Rein & Fielding, becomes confidential asst… Marsha Berkbigler promoted to vp-govt. affairs & franchise relations, Charter… Deborah Buhles, ex-Capital One, joins Comcast as dir.-corporate travel.