ORLANDO, Fla. -- Chairman Charles Ergen said that despite some challenges, Dish Network is serious about entering the consumer wireless market, which he sees as ripe for competition. During a Wednesday address at the PCIA show, he addressed several of the problems he expected Dish to confront as it seeks FCC approval to repurpose the AWS-4 band for mobile broadband use. Ergen also recounted the similarities he sees in the current wireless market to the “stale” video market that he challenged in the 1980s and 1990s when he built the company to compete with cable operators. FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski used his appearance at the show to promote the Commission’s announcement of winners for mobility funding, saying 83,000 users will see the benefits of an advanced mobile broadband network. (See separate report in this issue.)

Over 83,000 new U.S. road miles in 31 states will get access to mobile Internet within 3 years, the FCC said Wednesday as it disclosed results of its Mobility Fund “Auction 901” to allocate $300 million toward closing gaps in mobile coverage. Carriers that received funding must complete projects within three years, and must make their networks available to other providers for roaming, the commission said. The Competitive Carriers Association praised the one-time “infusion” of support, but said the agency needs to make more funding available on an annual basis if it wants to achieve its universal service goals.

T-Mobile USA’s proposed buy of MetroPCS is not expected to generate much opposition, as regulators take a deep dive at the FCC and Department of Justice, say officials from many of the groups that previously lined up to oppose AT&T’s failed attempt to buy T-Mobile last year and the Verizon Wireless/cable deals, which were approved by federal regulators this summer. T-Mobile parent Deutsche Telekom and T-Mobile said Wednesday they signed an agreement to create what they say will be “the leading value carrier in the U.S. wireless marketplace."

The FCC suggested a “reverse clock” auction for broadcast spectrum, as part of the voluntary incentive auction, in a paper by auction experts at Auctionomics and Power Auctions. Like the rulemaking notice on the auction of TV stations’ frequencies, the agency also released the paper this week. Under the proposal, all broadcasters that want to sell their licenses may not be successful in doing so, as the FCC eliminates those who hold out for a higher price. Those that offer to sell but don’t will be subject to relocation. The lead author is auction expert Paul Milgrom, a professor of economics at Stanford University who was a key adviser to the agency on the design of the first spectrum auctions.

A court appeal of updated program carriage rules shows independent channels’ desire for continued FCC regulation of multichannel video programming distributor contracts remains in conflict with the goal of major cable operators that own networks to cut back on such rules. NCTA had joined Time Warner Cable’s challenge of a 2011 order letting commission staff authorize continued carriage of a channel that brought a complaint as it’s adjudicated. Bloomberg, NFL and the Tennis Channel are among owners of indies seeking to keep the rules. Judges Susan Carney, Denny Chin and Reena Raggi, of the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, will hear oral argument on Thursday afternoon for 12 minutes from an FCC lawyer and from six apiece from Time Warner Cable and NCTA representatives in its 9th-floor courtroom (http://xrl.us/bnshpo).

Tennessee’s Lifeline discount is “an unfunded regulatory mandate,” AT&T Tennessee External and Legislative Affairs Manager Paul Stinson testified Tuesday before the Tennessee Regulatory Authority (http://xrl.us/bnsgv5). He called the state Lifeline program “outdated, inconsistent with state legislative reforms, anti-competitive and discriminatory” and said it’s “irrelevant to consumers who now have free wireless Lifeline alternatives.” Tennessee telcos, including AT&T, CenturyLink, TDS Telecom and Frontier, have been arguing to end the state Lifeline credit altogether in an industry coalition that formed earlier this year. Twenty-one other states have their own Lifeline programs, said NARUC’s National Regulatory Research Institute July report (http://xrl.us/bnky6q).

The “on-the-ground” reality of revising the International Telecommunication Regulations (ITRs) is more mundane than many press reports indicate, but there are still plenty of proposals the U.S. remains concerned about, said Kathryn O'Brien, FCC assistant International Bureau chief. ITU members are to revise the ITRs at the World Conference on International Telecommunications (WCIT), which begins Dec. 3 in Dubai. “You may have seen some references in the press to this U.N. conference in Dubai in December, and concerns about the U.N. ’taking over the Internet,'” O'Brien said Wednesday at a Federal Communications Bar Association forum. “There is no sort of U.N. takeover of Internet governance, the specific functions of [the Internet Corp. for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN)] at this particular conference. … But there are still huge, huge areas in this conference for the U.S., for the government and private sector, to worry about."

SAN FRANCISCO -- Movie studios and the MPAA will begin promoting UltraViolet more soon, Chris Dodd, MPAA chairman, and Mitch Singer, Sony Pictures Entertainment’s chief technology officer and president of the Digital Entertainment Content Ecosystem, told reporters Tuesday after an event at the Commonwealth Club. “It’s been under a year since we launched and we have over 5 million registered users already,” Singer said. “There’s been very little promotion and advertising by the studios and that’s going to happen very soon,” he said.

Deutsche Telekom said in an ad hoc notification Tuesday it’s in talks with MetroPCS executives, aimed at combining the smaller, prepaid carrier with T-Mobile USA. Rumors of a deal between the two carriers swirled in May, and analysts said then (CD May 10 p9) the transaction would likely face few regulatory hurdles. A MetroPCS/Leap Wireless combination has long been rumored as well.

ORLANDO, Fla. -- Timing, funding and capabilities will determine if the FirstNet is a success, panelists at the PCIA show said Tuesday. FirstNet’s proposed network has the potential to be “groundbreaking,” said Chief Counsel Jeffrey Cohen representing the Association of Public Safety Communications Officials. Other panelists said the network will have to overcome several hurdles. While the FirstNet board said last week that it could begin deploying the service as early as 2013, some panelists raised doubts that it could be effectively deployed before 2014.