Federal Communications Commission (FCC)

The FCC agreed to make several changes in its regulatory fees for FY 2003, for example giving wireless messaging companies a break and changing the way LMDS was categorized for regulatory fee purposes. Comrs. Copps and Adelstein, while praising the agency’s efforts to seek fairness in fee payments, still filed concurring statements because they said the Commission’s overall method of setting fees didn’t meet the requirements of the Communications Act.

Acknowledging that the FCC might not be able to correct an imbalance in the number of minority broadcast owners by itself, a key Commission official said the agency might need to turn to the private sector for help, particularly for funding minority-owned businesses. Jane Mago, chief of the FCC’s Office of Strategic Planning & Policy Analysis and leader of a newly announced federal advisory committee on diversity, told a conference of the Minority Media & Telecom Council (MMTC) Mon. that the panel would draw on expertise from the private sector for its membership but also could need private enterprise help in confronting a lack of capital for minority businesses.

At its final meeting Thurs., the FCC’s Public Safety National Coordination Committee (NCC) agreed to the finishing touches on a standard for 700 MHz wideband interoperability channels. The charter of the panel, led by Kathleen Wallman, expires July 25. The Commission created the committee in Jan. 1999 to submit for FCC approval an operational plan to achieve nationwide interoperability for the 24 MHz of spectrum set aside for public safety at 700 MHz and to recommend certain interoperability standards. At a general membership meeting Thurs., the group agreed to recommend that followup work be handed off to the National Public Safety Telecom Council, which would meet without the formal Federal Advisory Committee Act mandate that the NCC has had. The Telecom Industry Assn. (TIA) has been working on a standard for wideband data operations at 700 MHz based on Motorola- developed scalable adaptive modulation (SAM) technology on 50 kHz channels. Glen Nash, a past pres. of the Assn. of Public Safety Communications Officials and NCC technology subcommittee chmn., said TIA had made a “Herculean effort” to develop standards given the expedited timeline. The NCC earlier had worked on Project 25 as the narrowband digital voice standard for the 700 MHz interoperability channels, which the FCC adopted in 2001. Participants have said one challenge of the wideband data interoperability standards was that such operations were new in the band, so no equipment existed as the standards work was coming together. John Oblak, chief engineer of E.F. Johnson, who represented TIA at NCC meetings, said TIA had published documents on 6 of 7 standards for wideband air interface operations, including those connected to the physical layer and packet data specifications. Work for now isn’t moving ahead on a text messaging document because there are no open industry standards in that area on which the group could draw. “We found nothing available in the public domain,” Oblak said. There were no open protocols since services available were based on proprietary protocols, he said. Nash said that while the documents were based on 50 kHz channels, they were scalable up to 150 kHz channels based on future technology advances. In other areas, interoperability subcommittee Chmn. John Powell presented recommendations on state roles. The group said FCC rules should clarify the role of states in State Interoperability Executive Committees (SIECs), which administer interoperability channels at 700 MHz. “There are several examples where state governments are using their SIEC to control the interoperability channels,” the subcommittee said. It said the rules should require that SIECs or similar regional bodies include representatives from all levels of public safety agencies. Wallman ticked off a list of events that had occurred since the group began its work, including the Sept. 11 attacks, 2 wars, a new national alert system and a new Dept. of Homeland Security. “You should be very proud of the accomplishments you have achieved over the last 4 years,” she said.

Top U.S. govt. and private sector officials involved in the World Radio Conference (WRC) that ended July 4 in Geneva said Wed. that the WRC sent signals on how certain new services involving secondary allocations could be handled in the future. In a lunch sponsored by the D.C. Bar and Federal Communications Bar Assn., several officials underscored the need for quick FCC follow-up now that the WRC was over. One success was trimming the agenda for the WRC in 2007 to 21 items, including a proposal on spectrum for 3G systems and future generations, said Karl Nebbia, deputy assoc. administrator in NTIA’s Office of Spectrum Management.

With release of the FCC’s Triennial Review order on network unbundling policy said to be imminent, state regulators believe they're about to see the fruit of their months of preparation for addressing unbundled network element platforms (UNE-Ps) and the other complex network unbundling issues that the FCC order is referring to the states.

The FCC last week considered proposed options for where to relocate federal spectrum users in the 1.7 GHz band to make way for advanced wireless services (AWS). Last fall, the agency adopted a spectrum allocation order and proposed service rules for 2 blocks of 45 MHz spectrum, including the 1710-1755 MHz that the Dept. of Defense agreed to clear for advanced services such as 3G. The other block was 45 MHz of the 2110-2170 MHz now occupied by nongovt. users. In its latest rulemaking, the FCC proposed to: (1) Let DoD use 2025-2110 on a co-equal, co-primary basis with nonfederal govt. operations for earth stations at 11 sites that supported military space operations. (2) Roll back the recent establishment of Wireless Communications Services (WCS) at 2385-2395 MHz, let federal and nonfederal flight test stations operate at 2385-2395 MHz and no longer make 2390-2400 MHz available for use by unlicensed PCS devices. That 2nd change would allow DoD to relocate all aeronautical mobile systems out of 1710-1755 MHz, “which is a major objective for facilitating the introduction of AWS.” The proposal said that over time DoD access to 2025-2110 MHz for uplinks for military space operations -- known as tracking telemetry and command operations -- could make more spectrum available at 1755-1850 MHz for “absorbing certain DoD systems displaced from the band 1710-1755 MHz.” The plan would permit military services to use fixed and mobile stations, except aeronautical mobile services, at 2025-2110 MHz, on a secondary basis at 6 sites in the Southwest. As part of those spectrum relocation possibilities, which look for places to move federal users to in spectrum that’s under the purview of the FCC, the WCS and unlicensed PCS proposals would provide replacement spectrum for DoD and commercial flight test stations, the Commission said. Those stations may lose access to 35 MHz at 1525-1535 MHz and 2320-2345 MHz shortly. The Commission said it licensed 2025-2110 MHz to Broadcast Auxiliary Service (BAS). During the comment period, NAB and MSTV told the FCC they didn’t oppose the idea of relocating some federal operations to the band as long as broadcasters weren’t deprived of essential BAS services. “We believe that this action would provide a reasonable opportunity for clearing the band 1710-1755 MHz for new nationwide AWS uses and that permitting DoD earth stations access to the band 2025-2110 MHz would also provide greater use of the band 2025-2110 MHz without a significant impact on incumbent operations,” the proposal said. The proposal is expected to have a minimal impact on unlicensed PCS use at 2390-2400 MHz, where federal and nonfederal use of 2390-2395 MHz is expected for a “limited” number of aeronautical telemetry ranges in remote areas. “We have reviewed our files and have found that no unlicensed PCS device has been authorized in the band 2390-2400 MHz,” the proposal said.

Top FCC officials said Wed. at the Wireless Communications Assn. (WCA) show in Washington that they expected decisions by early next year on a series of interlocking spectrum issues, including efforts to solve public safety interference at 800 MHz. The outcome of the 800 MHz proceeding has implications for replacement spectrum that Multipoint Distribution Service (MDS) operators seek in the planned reallocation of some MDS spectrum for advanced wireless services.

The FCC’s Wireless Bureau concluded that federal law preempted parts of an Anne Arundel County, Md., zoning ordinance that involved radio frequency interference. A local law required that before receiving a county zoning certificate, wireless tower owners must demonstrate that a tower didn’t interfere with the county’s public safety operations. If interference were shown, the county was allowed to revoke a zoning certificate. Cingular Wireless challenged those parts of the local ordinance in April, and the county sought dismissal of the petition, saying the courts -- not the FCC -- had exclusive purview over zoning actions that local govts. undertook that involved wireless facilities. The Bureau, in an order released Mon., disagreed, granting Cingular’s petition for a declaratory ruling. The provisions of the ordinance that were under challenge regulated radio frequency interference (RFI), “not traditional zoning functions,” and were preempted by federal law, the bureau held. “At the same time, we remain concerned about interference to the county’s public safety communications system and we expect that the parties will continue to work cooperatively to resolve these problems,” in line with previous FCC guidance, the agency said. It required the county, Cingular and Nextel to report to the bureau’s Commercial Wireless Div. within 30 and 90 days on progress of efforts at mitigating interference to public safety systems. The reported interference began in 1997 and involved 800 MHz public safety communications in the county. The county adopted an ordinance last year that required that before receiving a zoning certificate, a tower operator had to show that the planned site wouldn’t degrade or interfere with the county’s public radio systems. The FCC said: “The Commission and the federal courts have consistently found that the Commission’s authority in the area of RFI is exclusive and any attempt by state or local governments to regulate in the area of RFI is preempted.”

Several factors are holding back early attempts at deal making under the FCC’s new ownership rules adopted June 2 but not yet effective since they haven’t been published in the Federal Register. There’s much uncertainty because of court appeals to come, whether the rules will be stayed as requested by Comrs. Adelstein and Copps, and a Commission freeze on all transfer applications since new forms haven’t been approved by Office of Mgmt. & Budget and aren’t available.

Several amendments were tacked onto the FCC Reauthorization Act (S-1264) that the Senate Commerce Committee passed Thurs., but it wasn’t the telecom “war” some lobbyists saw as possible earlier this week. Senate Appropriations Chmn. Stevens (R-Alaska) didn’t put forward an amendment to delay the wireless industry’s local number portability deadline, nor were TELRIC pricing or broadband UNE requirements mentioned. “Judging by the amendments filed, the truce in the battle of telecom titans is holding,” Senate Commerce Committee McCain said.