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.
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.