Former Alaska Republican Sen. Ted Stevens died in a plane crash on the way to a fishing lodge in Alaska Monday night, state officials announced Tuesday. He was 86. Bill Phillips, previously an outside consultant to NCTA, was among the eight others also on the flight. Officials said there were four survivors, but named only ex-NASA Administrator Sean O'Keefe and his son. The plane and fishing lodge were owned by Alaskan telecom carrier GCI. The carrier didn’t immediately say what was the purpose of the outing.
More needs to be done to spur competition in the U.S. wireless market, rural groups and Free Press said as the FCC embarks on preparation of its next annual report on wireless competition. AT&T and Verizon attacked the FCC’s latest competition report, reiterating their stance that the market is competitive, as did CTIA. Comments on the report were due Friday.
Equipment makers could seek grants to develop public-safety devices that support voice, data and video communications in the 700 MHz spectrum, under a bipartisan bill introduced Wednesday by Rep. Jane Harman, D-Calif. HR-5907 would set up a $70 million competition, run by NTIA, for research and development grants. “This process will produce devices ready for first responders’ use within five years -- hopefully sooner,” Harman said Wednesday on the House floor.
The FCC and/or Congress may have to address a law that prohibits the FCC from using competitive bidding for satellite spectrum before moving forward on mobile satellite service incentive auctions, said industry executives and the NTIA. The Open-market Reorganization for the Betterment of International Telecommunications (ORBIT) Act of 2000 outlawed such auctions to facilitate international coordination of satellite spectrum. While the spectrum in question refers to the reuse of satellite spectrum terrestrially, a 2005 lawsuit on somewhat similar reuse concluded the Act’s language is ambiguous on the auction of the spectrum, officials said. The FCC recently opened a proceeding on how best to encourage mobile broadband investment in the MSS bands, through incentive auctions and other means (CD July 16 p1).
Bills on spectrum reallocation are coming soon from Sens. John Kerry, D-Mass., and Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, and Rep. Ed Markey, D-Mass., they said after President Barack Obama committed to freeing up 500 MHz of spectrum over 10 years for wireless broadband. In a presidential memo Monday, Obama outlined a process to identify federal and commercial spectrum for reallocation, and use auction proceeds to support public safety. The effort will comprise administrative and legislative actions, and the White House plans to work with members of Congress, a senior administration official who refused to be named in stories told reporters on a conference call.
Public Knowledge proposed Thursday that the federal government “zero base” the federal “spectrum budget,” requiring every agency to reapply for the spectrum it needs, “including specific details with regard to spectrum utilization.” The group proposed government rules allowing agencies to offer on the secondary market spectrum they don’t use. Both proposals were debated at a Public Knowledge forum in Washington.
Broadcast and wireless industry representatives agreed that additional stations probably will look at taking part in the spectrum auction the FCC sought in the National Broadband Plan. Speaking at a Media Institute lunch Tuesday, President David Donovan of the Association for Maximum Service TV and CTIA Vice President Chris Guttman-McCabe agreed that the voluntary approach the commission is taking to the mobile-future auction is best. They agreed on little else and often interrupted each other and occasionally moderator Richard Wiley.
The FCC should reform the intercarrier compensation system “as soon as practicable” and any transition period should be “as short as possible,” MetroPCS General Counsel Mark Stachiw said during a meeting with Wireline Bureau officials. The company also asked the agency to put in place safeguards “to assure that traffic exchanged under existing reciprocal compensation arrangements, including de facto bill-and-keep arrangements, continues to be exchanged at rates no higher than the rates in place on the date that the National Broadband Plan was adopted,” said an ex parte filing. “MetroPCS also advocated that the Commission move at this time to a Report & Order based on the extensive record that has already been compiled rather than injecting additional delay into the process by seeking further comment.” Stachiw also met with Wireless Bureau officials to discuss spectrum proposals in the broadband plan, as well as “the critical need for additional paired spectrum to be offered in manageable spectrum block sizes and geographic areas to meet substantial unsatisfied needs” and the FCC’s proposal on incentive spectrum auctions.
A Universal Service Fund revamp passed by Congress would do more than an FCC overhaul of the fund, and would leapfrog possible limits to the commission’s legal authority, said House Communications Subcommittee Chairman Rick Boucher, D-Va., at a National Journal event Tuesday on Capitol Hill. The National Broadband Plan suggests an overhaul that wouldn’t require legislation. A USF bill may be passable on a bipartisan basis, said Ranking Member Cliff Stearns, R-Fla. Both legislators reaffirmed support for the FCC plan, but Stearns said he has concerns about how the FCC sees its role in spurring the marketplace.
The FCC’s National Broadband Plan is expected to contain provisions that would require carriers to offer free broadband, as a condition on spectrum licenses up for sale in future FCC auctions, FCC officials said Wednesday. The FCC is also working with NTIA to find spectrum to pair with the AWS3 band, the spectrum originally sought by M2Z for a proposed free network.