Federal Communications Commission (FCC)

Consumer groups urged the FCC to deny a proposed merger of Sprint and Nextel. “FCC approval of this transaction will harm consumers by allowing one entity to control an excessive amount of mobile broadband communications spectrum in many markets throughout the country,” Consumer Federation of America (CFA) and Consumers Union (CU) told the Commission jointly: “The public and consumer interest… could be affected by the anticompetitive harms identified in the petition.” Alternatively, the groups said, the FCC should require “substantial divestitures of spectrum to repair harm to actual and potential competition.”

The FCC asked for comments on spectrum needs of emergency response providers. It said it needs the input to study short- and long-term spectrum needs among emergency responders, as mandated by the Intelligence Reform & Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004. The FCC must report to Congress by Dec. 17. Specifically, the Commission wants to hear about the need for, operation and administration of a potential nationwide interoperable broadband mobile communications network. Comments should say whether Congress should provide an additional allocation of spectrum in the 700 MHz band for emergency response provider communications and gauge the extent to which commercial wireless technologies ought to be used to satisfy emergency response providers’ communications needs, the FCC said. The Commission wants backers of additional spectrum allocation to accommodate public safety interoperability to identify specific frequency bands that can be designated for that purpose, and to offer support for the amount of spectrum identified. Comments also should discuss potential benefits and difficulties associated with use of spectrum in the identified bands for emergency response/interoperability communications, the FCC said. Comments are due April 28. FCC Comr. Copps said a “useful” report to Congress should: (1) Include a survey of what spectrum is being used by which entities across the country. (2) Assess whether the FCC is “matching spectrum with appropriate physical characteristics to current and future public safety needs.” (3) Indicate whether some bands are being underutilized due to changed public safety needs. (4) Assess current interference in public safety bands. (5) Identify varying approaches to interoperability and their success or failure. (6) Identify availability of interoperable channels and the extent they are used. (7) Decide how a nationwide interoperable network could connect not only local police and fire entities, but also the FBI, DHS, FEMA and other critical federal agencies. “We must begin to understand that emergency rooms and the medical community are integral parts of emergency response and homeland security,” Copps said: “If we build a system that excludes the medical community it will be dangerously incomplete.”

AT&T CEO David Dorman urged new FCC Chmn. Martin to act quickly on issues hanging over the telecom sector’s business side, including intercarrier compensation reform and the USF’s future. But Dorman, who is expected to be in the number 2 slot as president of the new company after a merger with SBC, admitted he welcomed a world in which decisions based on regulatory concerns play a far smaller role. Asked what Congress should do on a Telecom Act rewrite, he replied: “My quick answer is ‘repeal it.'”

Sprint agreed to pay $4 million to the U.S. Treasury to resolve an FCC investigation into whether Sprint engaged in slamming. Voting as part of its omnibus “consent agenda” at the Thurs. open meeting, the Commission entered into a consent decree in which the telecom company also agreed to ensure future compliance. Slamming is the unauthorized change of a consumer’s preferred telecom provider.

The FCC granted BellSouth’s request to preempt state rules requiring the firm to provide DSL service to customers who get their voice service from CLECs using UNE loops, sources said. The Commission vote, taken Thurs. before ex-Chmn. Michael Powell left office, reportedly was along party lines -- 3 Republicans favoring the measure, 2 Democrats dissenting in part. The item, awaiting statements by commissioners, hasn’t been released.

SAN JOSE -- An extensive order addressing some issues in the IP-enabled services rulemaking should be ready for FCC consideration at the end of May, Wireline Bureau Chief Jeffrey Carlisle said at the VON Conference “town hall” here with Policy Development Chief Robert Pepper. The order will deal with jurisdiction over and classification of VoIP and “give indications” on VoIP players and regulatory social obligations such as E-911 and disabled access, Carlisle said. He told the audience he hoped the Commission would issue the order in the next several months. But he added that it depended on the FCC’s composition, since Chmn. Powell is leaving this month and Comr. Abernathy is thought likely to depart soon.

The wireless industry urged the FCC to confirm that tower building projects in wetland areas covered by U.S. Army Corps of Engineers permits shouldn’t require environmental assessments (EA) filed at the FCC. They said the FCC had recognized the Corps as the expert agency on environmental impacts in wetland areas; there was no need to submit an EA to the Commission if another federal agency had evaluated relevant environmental impacts. Industry comments came in response to a petition for declaratory ruling filed by Stokes Environmental Services last year (Doc. 05-44).

SAN JOSE -- FCC Chmn. Powell took some bows for protecting advanced services -- but he also credited the VoIP sector and urged it and its financial backers to get more involved in advocacy and education of policy-makers. “Thank you very much for what you've done for America,” Powell told the VON Conference here Tues., in what he called his “swan song” as chmn. But “you won’t be a rock star forever,” he cautioned the industry. “You must take care to work with those things that are of critical importance” to let VoIP flourish.

CTIA Pres. Steve Largent urged FCC Chmn. Powell to deny a petition filed by the National Assn. of State Utility Consumer Advocates (NASUCA). The petition asks the Commission to declare regulatory line items are prohibited unless authorized by govt. “If granted, NASUCA petition would provide consumers less complete and accurate information than is currently available to them,” he wrote in a letter dated March 3: “Consumers benefit from more, not less, information about the services they purchase. The wireless industry’s efforts in developing a Voluntary Consumer Code for Wireless Service are entirely consistent with this principle.”

The federal govt.’s firm commitment to broadband over power line (BPL) is demonstrated by the “unprecedented” attendance of 2 key officials at the FCC meeting at which rules for the technology were approved, said Bruce Franca, deputy chief of the Commission’s Office of Engineering & Technology. Franca said having NTIA Administrator Michael Gallagher and Federal Energy Regulatory Commission members at the meeting was a strong statement. Franca said the FCC worked especially closely with Gallagher, and when it got him on board “we really did take that to heart… That is not NTIA’s traditional position on Part 15 devices.” That agency rarely “finds a Part 15 device they like,” Franca told an FCBA BPL seminar last week in San Francisco. All in all, “We're in pretty good company with our enthusiasm for BPL.”