CTIA, AT&T and Verizon Wireless urged the FCC to reverse course from the last two wireless competition reports and find in the 2012 edition that the industry is effectively competitive. Reply comments were due this week on a Nov. 3 Wireless Bureau public notice seeking data as it prepares the Sixteenth Annual Report on the State of Competition in Mobile Wireless. The 2011 and 2010 reports declined to find that the market is competitive. The arguments parallel many of those that dominated the debate over the AT&T/T-Mobile deal. There are no signs that the FCC will change the stance of the last two reports, both prepared under Chairman Julius Genachowski, agency officials concede.

LightSquared’s petition for declaratory ruling Tuesday (CD Dec 21 p8) seeks to hold the FCC’s and the GPS industry’s feet to the fire by dealing with the unresolved issue of L-band and GPS spectrum rights, said LightSquared Executive Vice President Jeff Carlisle in an interview Wednesday. The LightSquared filing seemed to show a new tone in dealing with the agency, perhaps reflecting frustration with the continued regulatory uncertainty and a coming network agreement deadline with Sprint, said industry executives. A GPS industry group accused LightSquared of constructing “revisionist” history, during a conference call with reporters.

AT&T and T-Mobile both face some tough decisions in the aftermath of their failure to consummate their merger. AT&T’s proposed buy of its smaller rival has preoccupied both companies since March, before it was officially ended Monday. AT&T had been soldiering on for almost four months after the Justice Department sued to block the deal in a surprisingly quick decision Aug. 31.

The House GOP authors of spectrum legislation hope to negotiate the payroll tax cut extension with the Senate, but that could be tough because senators have largely returned to their states for a month-long break. After voting Tuesday to move to conference, Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, named as conferees House Communications Subcommittee Chairman Greg Walden, R-Ore., and Commerce Committee Chairman Fred Upton, R-Mich. However, at our deadline, Senate and House Democrats still had not agreed to participate. Members of the Senate have already left for the holidays, and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., refused Tuesday to call back his members. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., also said she would not appoint conferees.

CompTel and its allies have cleared another procedural hurdle in their battle to get the FCC moving on special access reform (CD Dec 8 p6), after the D.C. federal appeals court set a briefing schedule in the case. In an order dated and released late Monday, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit set deadlines for briefs in CompTel’s petition: CompTel and its co-petitioners will have until Jan. 13 to file their brief; the FCC’s response must be filed by Jan. 27, intervenors in the case have until Feb. 3, and the petitioners have until Feb. 10 to file a reply.

Broadcasters told the FCC they support a proposal to let HD Radio stations increase their power levels on one of their two sidebands. NPR and iBiquity each submitted studies to the commission showing that increasing sideband power asymmetrically would let HD operators boost power without increasing interference to nearby stations (CD Nov 2 p6). Letting stations take that step will help them “provide enhanced digital coverage that is not achievable while stations are constrained to operate with equal level digital sidebands,” the NAB said (http://xrl.us/bmmhnp). Meanwhile, iBiquity submitted a lengthy lab test report supporting the proposal (http://xrl.us/bmmhp3), prompting “a daily listener of the broadcast radio service” who previously fought a 2010 order letting HD Radio station increase their power to request an extension to the pleading cycle deadlines.

European Commission plans to force down high data roaming prices won cautious support from some EU lawmakers, telecom industry members and a consumer group, at a Tuesday hearing before the European Parliament Industry, Research and Energy Committee. But others, including the EC’s own advisory panel, the Body of European Regulators of Electronic Communications (BEREC) providers, said the plan is too complex and lacks ambition, and that lackluster competition in the roaming market should be attacked by other means.

AT&T pulled the plug on its proposed buy of T-Mobile on Monday. AT&T said in a statement that, after “a thorough review of options it has agreed with Deutsche Telekom … to end its bid to acquire T-Mobile.” The announcement brings to an end the fight over AT&T’s dramatic announcement in March that it would buy one of the remaining three national carriers. The topic has dominated industry discussions since. AT&T did not comment on the size of the break up fee it ultimately will have to pay DT.

Verizon Wireless asked the FCC to approve its buy of 122 AWS licenses from cable consortium SpectrumCo, a $3.6 billion deal unveiled Dec. 2 (CD Dec 5 p5). Verizon’s filing makes a case for why approval would be in the public interest. But some critics have emerged who hope the FCC will block the deal as a step away from a competitive wireless market.

The FCC should impose a time limit on negotiations over roaming agreements between carriers, said MetroPCS and other small carriers in a filing at the FCC. AT&T, however, said the FCC has already explained why a requested 60-day shot clock is not necessary.