New product introductions are in danger of being delayed by the government shutdown, TIA officials told us Tuesday. Products by TIA members need certification from FCC-approved telecommunication certification bodies (TCBs), but those labs can’t submit their reports to the now-shuttered FCC websites for ultimate approval. Without FCC approval, manufacturers can’t ship their products. “No new devices of any kind that need FCC approval can be marketed in the U.S. until the shutdown ends,” TIA General Counsel Danielle Coffey said.
In a new paper on regulation for the digital age, former FCC Chairman Reed Hundt says the agency needs to embrace a “modern” regime of light-handed regulation, but that a “laissez-faire” regime will work only some of the time. The paper was co-authored by Greg Rosston, former FCC chief economist, now a professor at Stanford University.
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., appointed Rep. John Yarmuth, D-Ky., to the House Commerce Committee Tuesday. The House Democratic Steering & Policy Committee approved the recommendation, and the House Democratic Caucus still has to sign off on Yarmuth’s appointment before he starts, Pelosi’s office said (http://1.usa.gov/15CwLHr). Pelosi hailed Yarmuth’s record on energy and healthcare. Yarmuth has been a member of the Committees on Budget and Education and the Workforce. Yarmuth replaces former Rep. Ed Markey, a Massachusetts Democrat who won a special Senate election this summer. Yarmuth has sponsored several telecom-relevant bills. He put forth a bill in 2007 that would create a National Center for Learning Science and Technology, on which Markey was a co-sponsor. That bill, which failed to get out of committee, was designed to keep funding for the center separate from the proceeds of spectrum auctions. He voted no on the House’s Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act, which failed to become law.
Don’t expect the Satellite Television Extension and Localism Act to be the vessel for all communications law changes, said House Communications Subcommittee Chairman Greg Walden, R-Ore., Tuesday. Former FCC Commissioner Robert McDowell had asked Walden at an American Enterprise Institute event whether telecom law would be best served by a comprehensive rewrite or in piecemeal legislation. McDowell congratulated Walden on the recent unanimous House vote approving the FCC Consolidated Reporting Act (CD Sept 11 p18). “These rewrites can take years,” McDowell noted, asking which path is better.
The massive cash injection from Vodafone’s sale of its share in Verizon Wireless could have implications for spectrum and mergers and acquisitions strategies of Vodafone’s European rivals, said analysts, a telecom association and a commercial user’s group in interviews last week. Vodafone will get $130 billion, $84 billion of which it expects to return to shareholders, it said Sept. 2 (CD Sept 4 p1). It’s also starting “Project Spring” to accelerate 4G network buildout to cover 90 percent of its five main European markets by 2017, expand 3G coverage and make other enhancements, it said. This could lead to more M&A in a market that’s already seeing heightened interest in deals, more consolidation of providers to the benefit of major telecom players and better services for business customers, said experts. They said it also could hit Vodafone rivals hard.
All three FCC commissioners told Congress the agency’s priorities range from spectrum auctions to the Internet Protocol transition to a forthcoming order to be circulated on rural call completion. They testified Wednesday before the Senate Appropriations Financial Services and General Government Subcommittee, in a hearing that ranged well beyond the FY 2014 budget slated for discussion.
T-Mobile made an economic case for limiting how much spectrum any single carrier can buy in the upcoming incentive auction of broadcast TV spectrum, in a white paper filed at the FCC and written by University of Maryland economist and auction expert Peter Cramton. “Well-crafted spectrum aggregation limits can increase competition both in the market for mobile broadband services and in the spectrum auctions in which they are applied,” the paper said (http://bit.ly/1fW70D2). “The increased competition leads to consumer benefits such as increased innovation, accelerated deployment of advanced mobile services, and expanded consumer choice. It also can lead to improved auction efficiency and higher auction revenues.” Meanwhile, a paper released by Mobile Future, the subject of a Tuesday webinar, reaches the opposite conclusion. That paper, by Robert Earle and David Sosa of the Analysis Group, looked at the effect of such restrictions on auctions around the world (http://bit.ly/14uwIIr). “Restrictive and preferential participation rules in place for the 1994 U.S. PCS spectrum auctions resulted in lost consumer welfare of as much as $70 billion,” the paper said. “Underfunded and unfunded business plans developed by new entrants acquiring set-aside licenses resulted in substantial amounts of spectrum sitting idle for many years.” The paper cites the German 3G auctions held in 2000: “Policies intended to encourage market entry were unsuccessful and resulted in a 10-year delay in the assignment of one-third of the 3G spectrum, delaying its development and the benefits consumers would have otherwise enjoyed.” The paper asks “What happens, actually, when governments have chosen to adopt such discriminatory rules?” Mobile Future Chairman Jonathan Spalter said on the webcast. “Are the auctions less successful, do they serve their ultimate goals of getting more spectrum efficiently available for consumer use?"
Dish Network urged the FCC to adopt the broadcast incentive auction band plan originally proposed by the FCC, with the modifications Dish previously identified. The commission should reject claims that routine technical concepts like intermodulation and harmonics “should justify limiting the amount of valuable low-band spectrum for auction,” it said in an ex parte filing in dockets 12-268 and 12-357 (http://bit.ly/14eoMML). Neither intermodulation nor harmonics has served as a basis for limiting the amount of spectrum available “to provide broadband or cellular service and should not now be a basis to limit the availability of low-band spectrum in the 600 MHz auction,” it said. Dish also reiterated support for a holistic approach to the upcoming spectrum auctions of the H block, 600 MHz spectrum and AWS-3 bands. Given the current regulatory requirements for H block and AWS-4, “it is unlikely Dish will choose to meaningfully participate in the upcoming auction of the H block,” Dish said. The filing recounted a meeting with Commissioner Ajit Pai and his staff.
FCC Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel got some support for her opposition to the FCC auctioning the H block in January, instead saying it should wait until it can be sold in combination with other spectrum later in the year. Rosenworcel has been at odds with Commissioner Ajit Pai, who wants the auction to take place as soon as possible (CD Aug 19 p1). While auction timing is a bone of contention at the FCC, it got little mention from the carriers who filed reply comments on H-block auction rules, which were due at the agency Friday. Most focused instead on whether package bidding should be allowed.
ASPEN, Colo. -- The impending spectrum auctions and electronic communications privacy are likely to be issues this Congress tackles, former members said during a Monday panel hosted by the Technology Policy Institute at its Aspen Forum. The panel included former Reps. Rick Boucher, D-Va., now a partner at Sidley Austin; Cliff Stearns, R-Fla., now a senior adviser at APCO Worldwide; and Thomas Tauke, R-Iowa, formerly an executive vice president at Verizon.