Howard Buskirk

A coalition of APCO and the major law enforcement and firefighter organizations said Fri. that giving public safety another 30 MHz of broadcast spectrum at 700 MHz, as proposed by Morgan O'Brien’s company Cyren Call, is worthy of consideration by Congress. But the group stopped short of endorsing the Cyren Call plan.

Sprint Nextel -- under fire from public safety groups as not being responsive enough to their concerns about 800 MHz rebanding -- formed a public safety panel to advise it as the retuning moves forward, the carrier announced Thurs. Creation of the committee comes as rebanding begins for the NPSPAC channels, a process expected to be much more complex than the retuning that has occurred thus far. “Is this cosmetic? Sure it’s cosmetic, but it might help,” said one public safety source: “Like a lot of things, maybe it should have happened a long time ago.”

The Dept. of Homeland Security agreed to promote an access program developed by BellSouth and the state of Ga. to give telecom repair crews better access to disaster areas to make repairs, as hurricane season 2006 begins, a top DHS official told the National Security Telecom Advisory Committee Wed. Bob Stephan, asst. secy. of Homeland Security for infrastructure protection, also indicated Wed. the Dept. will likely issue a document that allows telecom repair crews better access to fuel, water and security under the Stafford Act during future disasters.

The FCC’s air-to-ground auction opened Wed. and at the close of the 4th round at our deadline Va.-based Unison Spectrum was the high bidder for the coveted nationwide license with a high bid of $3.8 million. A 5th round was getting underway. Unison isn’t considered among the prime contenders for the spectrum, which will be used to offer broadband on commercial airliners. Verizon Airfone is considered by many to be the leading contender, followed on many lists by AirCell (CD April 4 p10). In another auction development, the FCC granted a motion by AirCell to withdraw from the auction, but that wasn’t a surprise since the company has indicated it will bid as part of AC BidCo. In a big day for auctions, short form applications for the June advanced wireless services (AWS) auction were also due Wed. The number of contenders will be of more interest than usual since the FCC will keep bidder identity secret as the auction develops unless a sufficient number file short forms so that the FCC considers the auction likely to be competitive. Based on past auctions, the FCC is likely to release lists of potential bidders within the next 2 weeks.

Designated entities that last week asked the FCC to set aside new rules for DE participation in the advanced wireless services auction (CD May 8 p2) likely will sue the FCC within days if they don’t get their way, sources said Tues. The DEs aren’t saying where they would file, but plan to do so in a way that doesn’t delay the AWS auction’s appointed starting date of June 29. Time is tight, with potential bidders’ short form auction applications due today (Wed.) at the FCC. Last week Council Tree, Bethel Native Corp. and the Minority Media & Telecom Council petitioned the FCC for expedited review of a request that the FCC drop changes made to the DE program in an April 22 order. In a Mon. filing, STX, a DE that plans to bid in the auction, said the April change was “disruptive,” but urged the FCC to keep the new rules. Doing as the DEs demand “would simply preserve the status quo and invite the usual round of so-called ‘designated entities’ to participate in the auction to the certain detriment of prospective bona fide designated entities like the company,” STX said: “The company therefore fears that its reasonable opportunities to secure AWS licenses at auction would be severely impaired or completely eliminated if, in reliance of the prior auction rules, well-capitalized ‘designated entities’ (backed by the national wireless carriers)… proceeded to yet again wield their significant bidding power.”

The fight over net neutrality language in the telecom bill introduced by House Commerce Committee Chmn. Barton (R-Tex.) threatens to sink any remaining hope for telecom legislation this Congress, Verizon Exec. Vp Tom Tauke said Tues. Tauke said he still sees some hope for legislation that includes only video franchise plus USF reform provisions needed to please Sen. Stevens (R-Alaska), chmn. of the Senate Commerce Committee.

Cingular, Verizon Wireless and Sprint Nextel asked the FCC to turn down a plea by the Rural Telecom Group and 7 small and midsized wireless carriers that the agency undertake a formal inquiry into whether the FCC should require carriers to provide “automatic,” seamless roaming on their networks. But attorneys representing the 8 told us Mon. the issue appears to be gaining momentum at the FCC.

Chmn. Martin still hasn’t started to circulate an order addressing Sprint Nextel’s failure to meet a Jan. 2005, deadline for 95% of subscribers to have location-capable handsets. Martin has circulated orders addressing failures by the other large carriers. But Sprint’s failure is tied to problems converting subscribers on Nextel’s legacy iDEN network to GPS handsets as a result of a software glitch affecting millions of Motorola iDEN phones. The FCC is still reportedly looking more closely at that. “I'm not surprised,” said a public safety source. “Sprint Nextel certainly raised more issues than some of the others.” Among the major carriers, Verizon Wireless, Sprint, Alltel and U.S. Cellular offer handset-based E-911 solutions. Cingular and T-Mobile provide a network-based E-911 solution.

The FCC could lose big when the Court of Appeals, D.C., hands down a ruling later this year in a court case filed by the American Council on Education, CompTel and various Internet and education groups, to judge from oral arguments heard Fri. They're challenging how the FCC has applied CALEA to VoIP and other Internet communications.

The FCC should dump an April 25 order setting designated entity (DE) bidding rules for an advanced wireless services (AWS) auction starting June 29, urged Council Tree Communications, the Minority Media & Telecom Council (MMTC) and Bethel Native Corp. in a Fri. petition. The DEs asked the FCC to hold the auction, but using previous auction rules.