The FCC voted to revise rules in the wireless communications service band, making 25 MHz of spectrum available for mobile broadband use by WCS licensees more than a decade after the agency first took up the issue. The commission on Thursday also implemented new construction benchmarks for licensees in the band, meant to increase the speed of the service’s deployment. The FCC cited the order as the first step in the National Broadband Plan goal of freeing up 500 MHz of spectrum over 10 years for wireless broadband services. Previous rules for the spectrum limited its use to fixed services.
FCC Republicans objected strongly Thursday to an order approving the agency’s latest version of its annual wireless competition report, which unlike previous reports does not find that the U.S. wireless market is competitive. Commissioners Robert McDowell and Meredith Baker “concurred” with the order, rather than approving it without reservations. The report reflects the state of the industry based on 2008 data.
The FCC launched a rulemaking Thursday to establish a low, uniform rate for cable and telecom pole attachments. The FCC also signed off on a “nuts and bolts” order implementing local number porting changes the commission approved a year ago. A third order streamlines the application process for those seeking E-rate support. All three orders by the Wireline Bureau were approved in 5-0 votes.
House Oversight Committee leaders seemed poised at a hearing Thursday to act to accelerate government agencies’ transition to Networx. That’s a General Services Administration program under which federal agencies can buy telecom, network and information services. Agencies must sign on to the program by June 2011, the expiration date for the GSA’s old telecom program, FTS2001. The transition is behind schedule for several reasons, said government and industry officials.
FTC Chairman Jon Leibowitz stressed planned further efforts for consumer protection, in testimony to a Senate Subcommittee on Financial Services hearing on the commission’s fiscal 2011 budget. The FTC will take “a very close look” at Google’s Street View vehicles having collected “payload data” from German Wi-Fi networks, he said Thursday.
FCC Commissioner Michael Copps said he’s concerned the proposal for a national wireless broadband network outlined in the National Broadband Plan has not won the support of most public safety groups. Copps also said in an interview he has grown increasingly optimistic Congress will approve funding for the network, as proposed by FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski. Copps also predicted that compromise is possible among the five commissioners on comprehensive Universal Service Fund overhaul. Bringing in outsiders to oversee “every difficult issue” at the commission isn’t necessarily the way to go, Copps said when asked about the hiring of a head for the review of Comcast-NBC Universal deal. (See separate item in this issue.)
The FCC needs multiple tools for reallocating underutilized spectrum, Julius Knapp, chief of the FCC Office of Engineering and Technology, told the Commerce Spectrum Management Advisory Committee during its public meeting Wednesday. The committee released its reports on federal spectrum inventory, transparency, adjacent band interference, dynamic spectrum access and incentives for spectrum sharing.
Rural telephone companies are bracing for a less sympathetic Congress in 2011, said executives from rural telco associations. They spoke with reporters at the annual legislative and regulatory conference of the Western Telecom Alliance and the Organization for the Promotion & Advancement of Small Telecommunications Companies. WTA and OPASTCO members from around the country arrived in droves to lobby Washington policymakers about their concerns with the National Broadband Plan. They heard remarks Tuesday from long-time rural advocate Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., who’s set to retire this year, as well as Sen. Mike Johanns, R-Neb., and Rep. Doris Matsui, D-Calif.
Legislators urged tightened security of veterans’ health and financial information at the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. In a House Veterans Affairs Oversight Subcommittee hearing Wednesday, Democrats and Republicans grilled department officials on steps they're taking to prevent breaches. Roger Baker, chief information officer of the department, admitted weaknesses but cited progress shifting the department’s culture to preclude future threats.
Required state approvals in hand and anticipating a nod soon from the FCC, Frontier Communications hopes to close its acquisition of networks and long-distance business from Verizon as soon as June 30, a company spokesman said. Regardless of the timing, for the first 30 to 45 days after the closing, Frontier’s focus will be melding its company culture with Verizon’s, Steven Crosby, the company’s senior vice president for government and corporate affairs, told us. “Systems are very cut-and-dried,” Crosby said. “You work with them, you test them, you get them right. The biggest job here is cultural integration."