An omnibus telecom bill the Senate Commerce Committee is drafting will include a “white space” provision to encourage broadband deployment, Committee Chmn. Stevens (R-Alaska) said Tues. “Tweaking” would bridge differences between his bill (S-2332), which would enable TV white spaces to be used by unlicensed devices, and another (S-2327) introduced by Sen. Allen (R-Va.), he said. Stevens expects to move to a markup of the overall bill now that 16 of 17 planned telecom hearings have been completed, he said.
Despite rosy industry predictions and a strong nudge from the European Commission, widespread mobile TV uptake in Europe is far from certain, an analyst said Fri. The technology is “heavily overhyped by the vendor community,” said Strategy Analytics’ Nitesh Patel. Carriers not convinced of the opportunity are forced by competitive threats inside and outside the industry to think seriously about choosing a strategy to pursue the technology, he told us.
T-Mobile disputed Justice Dept. arguments for letting the FCC allow blind bidding in a June advanced wireless services auction to block bid signaling seen in past auctions. DoJ’s logic is out of date, T-Mobile said. “The Dept.’s analysis is flawed, and its reliance on the results of Auction No. 11 to support non-transparent bidding in Auction No. 66 is completely misplaced,” T-Mobile said. In a March 3 filing DoJ cited 1996-97 misconduct in Auction 11. Auction 11, long a subject of debate, was among those in which Mario Gabelli allegedly exploited rules encouraging small investors to buy licenses. “Mercury PCS used the last few digits of its bids to identify a specific BTA and thereby to signal another bidder, High Plains Wireless, that unless High Plains ceased bidding on a block of spectrum in the identified BTA, Mercury PCS would bid up the price for spectrum in another BTA that High Plains sought to buy,” DoJ said. DoJ admitted the FCC fined Mercury and changed its auction procedures. DoJ said it has identified at least one other example of bidders bending rules, in auction 58 for PCS licenses in Roanoke, Va. The Auction 11 example is irrelevant, T-Mobile said, calling the Roanoke case “one isolated example” after Auction 11. “If the Dept. has harbored concerns about the Commission’s transparent bidding practices, it has had ample opportunity to voice them before, during or after any of the fifty wireless auctions that have been conducted since Auction No. 11,” T-Mobile said.
The Dept. of Justice will bring civil fraud charges against Mario Gabelli, alleging he sought to deceive the FCC in spectrum auctions, it said. Gabelli’s alleged abuse of designated entity credits led the FCC to tighten rules.
VoIP carriers would benefit from passage of pending telecom legislation, because even E-911 compliant companies face too many obstacles to getting linked with public safety access points (PSAPs), said Dana Lichtenberg, telecom aide to Rep. Gordon (D-Tenn.). This is in part because too many in Congress think the FCC’s VoIP E-911 order “is all that was needed,” she said. Lichtenberg -- speaking at an enterprise VoIP conference held Wed. by the Information Technology Assn. of America (ITAA) -- said Gordon wants more resources for PSAPs, since many of the failures to meet the recent deadline were theirs. She said at least some E-911 language, alongside cable franchising issues, will be in a “stripped down” version of coming House telecom legislation. She held out hope the bill would remain bipartisan.
Identities of high bidders in June’s advanced wireless services (AWS) auction would be secret until the sale ends, under rules apparently headed for FCC approval. Sources said despite wireless carriers’ opposition, the Wireless Bureau seems inclined for the first time to embrace nondisclosure provisions. The proposal got backing this week from the FTC’s Bureau of Economics.
Public TV executives next week head to their Capitol Hill Day in record numbers, hoping 2006 won’t replay 2005, a year that saw their federal allocation faced a cut of nearly 50% and the Corp. for Public Bcstg. rocked by controversy over then Chmn. Kenneth Tomlinson’s efforts to infuse conservative “balance” into PBS shows. “It was by far the most tumultuous [year] in recent memory,” said Assn of Public TV Stations (APTS) Pres. John Lawson. The projected record attendance of more than 200 reflects the “high level” of station interest this year in public TV’s federal agenda, he added.
The 90 MHz of 700 MHz spectrum set to be auctioned by the FCC by 2008 probably will be the last big block of spectrum below 2.5 GHz to reach market for many years. A June auction of advanced wireless services (AWS) spectrum (CD Feb 2 p5) will draw big firms. But the auction of 700 MHz spectrum to be cleared by the end of analog broadcasting (CD Feb 2 p1) may see the long-rumored entry into that spectrum by nontraditional players. Verizon Wireless and T-Mobile, which lobbied hard for the law authorizing the auction, are considered likely participants. The AWS auction is carriers’ first priority now, because it’s “first in the queue,” an industry source said.
The DTV provisions in the Budget Deficit Act are considered final, but some contentious sections of the bill could be amended, according to a Congressional Research Service (CRS) report. The House is expected to take up the budget bill when it reconvenes Jan. 31. Most Hill telecom staffers and lobbyists are confident the bill will pass without a hitch. But if budget reconciliation fails, new legislation could be introduced on spectrum release dates, auctions and plans to assist the transition to DTV covered in the conference report, the CRS report said. “From the perspective of public safety, the worse case scenario is that the legislative initiative to release spectrum fails, either because it’s stalled in debates over budget reconciliation or because new legislation cannot be agreed on,” the report said. Such legislation could be more expansive, since it wouldn’t be confined by restrictions in budget rules, and it would probably cover whether cable and satellite are subject to multicast must-carry rules and so are obliged to transmit all of a broadcaster’s over-the-air programming, the report said. Under the conference report adopted by the Senate and awaits approval by the House, the spectrum auctions would turn over $7.36 billion to the federal govt. for the budget deficit, which is why DTV provisions ended up in a budget bill. The 700 MHz spectrum that broadcasters would return has produced a wide range of valuations, the CRS report said. The Congressional Budget Office offered the most conservative at $12.5 billion, and private studies have gone as high as $28 billion. For investors, a crucial consideration is that the spectrum be unencumbered -- that broadcast stations have vacated. “In the case of spectrum at 700 MHz, the general opinion is that there is significant risk that the spectrum will remain encumbered, despite hard dates, thereby tying up resources indefinitely and hampering investment in new communications technologies and services,” the report said. “As presently configured, 874 licenses in 60 MHz would be available for auction. Of these, 280 licenses are considered encumbered by TV broadcast stations,” it said. The budget bill also would spend $1.5 billion on a DTV converter box subsidy program; $1 billion for public safety agencies for interoperability; up to $30 million for temporary digital equipment for N.Y. area broadcasters; up to $65 million for low-power TV stations in rural areas to upgrade from analog to digital technology; up to $106 million building a unified national alert system and $50 million for a tsunami warning and coastal vulnerability program; $43.5 million for a national 911 improvement system under the Enhance 911 Act of 2004; and up to $30 million to support the Essential Air Service Program.
Former FCC Comr. Rachelle Chong was nominated Thurs. to be the newest commissioner on the Cal. PUC. Chong would fill the vacancy left by the departure of former Comr. Susan Kennedy. Chong, a Republican, was on the FCC 1994-97 when the FCC was implementing the 1996 Telecom Act, setting up the first PCS wireless spectrum auctions, finalizing DTV rules and coping with new wireless and satellite services. Most recently, Chong was in private telecom practice as an attorney, mediator, arbitrator and expert witness. The appointment of a former federal telecom regulator to the state commission overseeing the nation’s largest telecom marketplace follows on the heels of a Tenn. state regulator, Deborah Tate, being appointed to fill an FCC vacancy. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R) said Chong’s telecom background and “exceptional understanding of the regulatory environment” will be major assets to the PUC. Kennedy left the PUC to become Schwarzenegger’s chief of staff. Chong’s appointment must be confirmed by the Cal. Senate.