Wireless carriers made a late push at the FCC to head off a pending order on outage reporting, which is expected to add several key recommendations the FCC made in the notice of proposed rulemaking. Industry representatives were meeting with agency officials right up to the issuance Wed. of the “sunshine notice” stating that the item had been placed on the agenda for next week’s open meeting (CD July 29 p5). Carrier sources said a key question is whether FCC has incorporated suggestions by the Dept. of Homeland Security for making information submitted as secure as possible.
Howard Buskirk
Howard Buskirk, Executive Senior Editor, joined Warren Communications News in 2004, after covering Capitol Hill for Telecommunications Reports. He has covered Washington since 1993 and was formerly executive editor at Energy Business Watch, editor at Gas Daily and managing editor at Natural Gas Week. Previous to that, he was a staff reporter for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution and the Greenville News. Follow Buskirk on Twitter: @hbuskirk
The FCC Technological Advisory Council (TAC) agreed Wed. to push forward on trying to devise a model for quantifying the cost of radio spectrum interference, which could help the Commission as it delves deeper into its interference temperature initiative and other items exploring how to make maximum use of scarce spectrum in a wireless world. But the engineers and scientists on TAC vigorously debated the proposal and whether it would help the FCC make real-world spectrum decisions.
The Consumer Federation of America renewed its attack on the Cingular-AT&T Wireless merger, arguing in a white paper that the Justice Dept. should reject the merger because it will hurt local telephone competition. The paper draws a connection between the potential effect on wireless competition and growing concerns about telecom prices with the phase-out of the UNE-P and resulting departure of CLECs from some markets.
Wireless carriers are planning a series of meetings at the FCC to convince the Commission to move forward on its long-awaited National Programmatic Agreement (NPA) on cell tower siting, worked out in 3 years of negotiation. CTIA and Verizon Wireless met with a key staffer for Comr. Copps last week in what is seen as the effort’s kickoff.
CTIA and wireless carriers concerned about a pending proposal that they provide outage information to the FCC got critical support for their arguments that the reporting could have negative implications for homeland security. Rep. Davis (R-Va.), chmn. of the House Govt. Reform Committee, said requirements proposed by FCC run counter to the Critical Infrastructure Information Act (CIIA) approved by Congress in 2002. “The proposed FCC regulations run counter to the CIIA provisions, would reverse the intended impact of the Act, and negate the role of DHS in the protection of our nation,” Davis wrote Chmn. Powell in a letter Wed. “The FCC proposal is not crafted from a security perspective. We do not want to create additional vulnerabilities for critical infrastructure sectors.” FCC is expected to vote at its Aug. meeting on an order that would impose mandatory reporting requirements on wireless carriers. Davis asked the FCC to consider the full implications for CIIA before moving forward with a vote. A top wireless lobbyist said the letter shows growing concerns about the FCC proposal: “I think there are folks at DHS who are just tuning into the fact that the order may be counter to what they're trying to achieve on homeland security.”
Ultra-wideband industry officials say a final decision by the IEEE could be a year or more away on UWB standards on 802.15.3a, resolving the fight between the Motorola-led DS- UWB Forum and the Intel-Texas Instrument-led MBOA. An MBOA official said Thurs. the group may bypass IEEE entirely until after it has a working product.
The benefits of the 800 MHz rebanding order are so significant for public safety groups that it’s unlikely rival carriers will go to court to seek a stay when the order is eventually released by the FCC, Nextel Senior Vp Robert Foosaner said Wed. during an earnings call with analysts.
In a development raising red flags for wireless carriers, regulators in Neb. and Ohio suspended on a long- term basis a requirement that LECs port numbers to their wireless competitors. Sources said the decisions Tues. could add pressure on the FCC to issue an order on who pays the cost of transporting calls under its nationwide LNP mandate.
In what’s shaping up as the next potential big spectrum fight, the FCC is contemplating a release at its Sept. meeting or earlier of a rulemaking clearing the way for the auction of H-block spectrum, sources told us Tues. The FCC is expected both to reallocate the spectrum and propose service rules to make an auction possible.
Cingular and AT&T Wireless turned over to the FCC late last week hundreds of pages of documents responding to a June 30 request for information on the companies’ proposed merger. In another merger development, Rogers Communications announced that the deadline expired at midnight Sun. for AT&T Wireless to sell its 34% in Rogers Wireless.