SES Americom, NRTC and WSNet filed opposition at FCC on applications for transfer of control and licenses from Hughes to EchoStar for New EchoStar 1 spot-beam satellite, saying any transfer or grant of license should be conditioned. EchoStar is depending on New EchoStar 1 satellite to bolster local service throughout U.S., but has cited need for quick approval. Timeclock for approval is stopped until EchoStar provides all of requested documents necessary for review or until end of comment period -- whichever comes latest. Comments were due May 20, reply comments May 30 and responses June 4. In addition to application to launch satellite, Commission also asked commenters for their position on EchoStar acquisition of Hughes Electronics and its DirecTV.
Key “threshold” question to ancillary terrestrial component request by mobile satellite service (MSS) licensees is whether such sharing is technically feasible, FCC Comr. Abernathy said at National Spectrum Managers Assn. conference Tues. “If it is, the Commission should hold an auction to allow those rights to evolve to the most highly valued use, and that includes potentially being bought by the satellite licensees who have the satellite rights,” Abernathy told conference in Arlington, Va. She said MSS licensee New ICO had asked FCC for approval to develop terrestrial spectrum using bands allocated to MSS. Sprint PCS and Cingular Wireless submitted new technical data to Commission last week that contended MSS operators didn’t plan to share spectrum between MSS and ATC, but wanted to separate band into one segment for each, conclusion to which ICO objected. In other areas, Abernathy told reporters after her speech that Commission decision on 700 MHz auction probably still was several days away.
Federal regulators “appear to have at their core the single-minded but mistaken notion that open, nondiscriminatory telecommunications platforms no longer serve the public interest when they are used to provide so- called ‘broadband’ services,” Vint Cerf WROTE Mon. to key Washington officials, adding “the FCC appears determined to deny CLECs and ISPs the very capabilities they need to survive.” Cerf, co-creator of Internet Protocol (IP) standard used for Internet and now senior vp-Internet Architecture & Technology for WorldCom, wrote FCC Chmn. Powell and Commerce Dept. Secy. Donald Evans urging open broadband markets to promote competition. “If you want competition there is one absolute way to guarantee it,” Cerf told our affiliated Washington Internet Daily -- namely, that federal regulators should ensure that “we compete within each medium.”
N.J. Division of Ratepayer Advocate told FCC it’s concerned that merger of AT&T Broadband and Comcast would “stifle potential competition in the cable and broadband marketplace in New Jersey, ultimately resulting in higher prices coupled with lower service quality, an outcome that would not in the public interest.” Reply comments on proposed merger were due Tues. at FCC, which, along with DOJ, is considering deal. N.J. Ratepayer Advocate said merger would raise level of concentration in cable industry to “unparalleled levels” and reinforce monopoly power. It also said companies hadn’t proved they would deploy cable telephony once merger was approved, calling their pledge to do so “empty promises.” Advocate also said it was concerned about merged company potentially withholding programming it owned from its competitors, as well as what it called need for independent ISPs on cable’s high-speed data plant. Advocate urged FCC to impose conditions on merger that would preserve competition in all areas. RCN Telecom Services, in its reply comments, said merger would create company with monopsony power “and the opportunity and incentive to abuse it.” RCN Telecom said FCC should either deny merger or impose conditions that would allow access for competitors to affiliated programming on nondiscriminatory terms, prohibit exclusive arrangements with suppliers of programming and essential technologies, require uniform subscriber pricing to deter company from engaging in predatory pricing, sales and marketing.
House Commerce Committee plans oversight hearing on public broadcasting week of June 17, Linda Bloss-Baum, counsel to panel told Public Radio Conference (PRC) forum in Washington last week. Such oversight hearing hadn’t been held in 3 years, she said, and it would provide opportunity for new members to learn about public broadcasting issues, including funding concerns. Specific issues that will be looked at, Bloss-Baum told us, include charges of bias in NPR reporting, use of PTV’s ancillary and supplementary digital services for commercial purposes, and commercial nature of underwriting practices. Committee will be “watching” funding levels for public broadcasting, she said. Congress was unlikely to legislate major spectrum reform bill or create trust fund this year, said Colin Crowell, counsel to House Telecom Subcommittee ranking Democrat Markey (Mass.). He said Markey had introduced spectrum bill so he could reintroduce re-calibrated bill with suggestions for additions and deletions that would emerge this year. It was important that Congress look again at govt. to extent that “we can get the government, public agencies and the Pentagon to be more efficient with spectrum,” Crowell said. Underlying goal, he said, is to reorient spectrum policy and take it out of budgetary context. That would ensure that policy is put first and “auction is just a corollary benefit that we get from good spectrum policy.” Congress, he said, has done just reverse in recent years and looked at FCC as bank.
Wireless service revenue in 2nd half of 2001 rose 22.6% to $34.1 billion, with industrywide revenue in year hitting $65 billion, CTIA Pres. Tom Wheeler told reporters Mon. Wireless data revenue reached $545 million in 2nd half of last year. Wireless min. of use were up 75% in half, with consumers using 456 billion billable min. for full year, CTIA Pres. Tom Wheeler told reporters Mon. “There were more minutes of use in the last half of 2001 than there was in all of 2000,” said Wheeler, who released CTIA’s semiannual wireless industry survey. Part of that growth was attributable to subscriber growth, with users increasing 17% in period. Of 17% subscriber growth, CTIA’s survey said there were 128.4 million subscribers as of year-end 2001, up from 109 million at end of 2000. While min. of use soared, local monthly bills have grown at relatively more modest pace, survey showed, to average $47.37 in Dec. 2001, up from $45.27 year earlier. In period in which national calling plans have expanded significantly, roaming revenue has grown proportionately, survey said -- up 27.9% in 2nd half of 2001 from $2.2 billion year earlier. For year, CTIA survey said roaming revenue was up 15.6% to $3.9 billion. Survey is drawn from wireless service providers and covers cumulative capital investment, number of cell sites, total service revenue, average local monthly bill, average length of call. Billable wireless min. of use reached 456 billion in 2001, up 75% in year, CTIA survey said. Wheeler said average subscribers’ use of cellphones grew to almost 400 min. per month in 2nd half, up 43% from year ago. “That’s a big change in a short period of time,” he said. On growth in wireless data revenue, which hit $544.96 million in 2001, he said nearly 70% of data revenue came in last 6 months. On another issue, Wheeler said CTIA planned to file amicus brief in U.S. Appeals Court, D.C., in pending Verizon Wireless litigation against FCC. Verizon sued Commission earlier this year in D.C. Circuit and Court of Federal Claims over pending NextWave license obligations. In March, FCC returned 85% of deposits from re-auction but concluded that winning bidders such as Verizon still should be held to nearly $16 billion in potential auction obligations until pending Supreme Court review played out. Verizon argued that Commission should release it from its auction contract obligations because licenses had been returned to NextWave and Jan. 2001 re- auction had been voided. In CTIA amicus brief, Wheeler said, “we will be saying that a basic tenet of contract law is that you deliver that which you sold and that if there is a failure to deliver that a party may declare the contract null and void if it so chooses.”
FCC tentatively expects to release long-awaited notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM) next month on upper millimeter wave bands, Michael Marcus, associate chief technical adviser of FCC’s Office of Engineering & Technology, said Wed. He outlined plans for NPRM at National Spectrum Managers Assn. conference in Arlington, Va. Bands expected to be covered by upper millimeter wave NPRM include fixed point-to-point operations at 71-76 GHz, 81-86 GHz and 92-95 GHz, said John Lovberg, chief technology officer of Loea Communications. NPRM stems from petition for rulemaking filed by Loea, which sought service rules for 71-76 MHz and 81-86 MHz. Loea said rulemaking would allow rollout of gigabit-per-sec. broadband capacity with fixed wireless applications in areas where fiber capacity can’t reach. Creating rules for this spectrum on unlicensed basis is one possible alternative, Marcus said. Potential for narrow beams in this spectrum is one factor that may point toward unlicensed regulatory scheme for these upper frequencies, Marcus said. Another option is take large geographic area, of up to several hundred square miles, and auction it off, he said. “No one outside the FCC likes this,” Marcus acknowledged. One potential benefit of this type of plan is for rapid development of technology because licensee who controls area “can decide what the rules are,” he said. Otherwise, “when technology changes, changing the rules is difficult,” Marcus said. This would address “major technical problem” of trying to regulate technology that moves in Internet time with regulatory processes that move in “Administrative Procedures Act time,” he said. Third option would be that if FCC makes upper millimeter wave spectrum available, it should license spectrum on traditional Part 101 basis, he said. “That certainly is an option,” he said. “It’s not very popular with the FCC at the moment, but it certainly is an option.” NPRM will include proposal for one of these options but won’t rule out other 2, Marcus said. Loea’s Lovberg said company has recommended that Commission enact Part 101 provisions for fixed point-to-point licensing as opposed to unlicensed. “People who use this for very high data rate back-haul connections really want to know that they're protected,” he said. Loea also proposed 3rd-party registration system, rather than band manager, to keep track of where systems are deployed, he said. Company also has sought geographic area based licenses that would be provided on first-come, first served basis, he said.
Changes at FCC Wireless Bureau Policy Div.: Barry Ohlson promoted to div. chief, Blaise Scinto to senior deputy div. chief, Jared Carlson to deputy div. chief… Robert Paladino, ex-Harvard and PricwaterhouseCoopers, becomes Crown Castle senior vp-global performance… Allison Mellon, ex- ValueClick, named vp-western sales, Vivendi Music & Media Group… Chris Walczak, ex-Pegasus Development, appointed vp, DSI Systems… Ali Kafel, ex-Telica, named vp-mktg. & communications, Advanced Fibre Communications… Jim Russell, Minn. Public Radio, joins Associated Press Bcstrs. Advisory Board.
Comcast and AT&T Broadband defended their merger to FCC, saying combination of nation’s first- and 3rd-largest cable companies would be in public interest, wouldn’t violate Communications Act and would “have no anticompetitive effects in any relevant market.” In turnabout, American Cable Assn. (ACA) jumped on board in favor of merger, telling FCC that deal wouldn’t threaten livelihood of country’s more than 900 small and rural cable operators. Comcast and AT&T Broadband, in 328 pages of reply comments, said dozens of people and entities who filed opposing comments last month (CD April 30 p1) based their assertions on “unfounded fears, rank speculation and thinly disguised pursuit of private agendas.” Opponents, who included coalition of 38 national and state groups such as Consumer Federation of America, said proposed $72 billion merger would create corporate behemoth that would raise prices, offer fewer choices in programming, preclude competition on Internet and among Internet service providers (ISPs), dictate technology standards, put customer service needs last. But companies rejected those arguments and said they already had proved otherwise.
Sen. Brownback (R-Kan.) said in Senate Commerce Committee hearing Wed. on telecom issues (see separate story, this issue) that he backed limited delay in 700 MHz auction. That stance runs counter to position of several rural carrier groups, including National Telecom Co-op Assn., that June 19 auction date for upper and lower bands of 700 MHz should remain intact. At our deadline, CTIA application for review, asking Commission to postpone bidding, still was pending. Agency had been expected to issue public notice on short-form applications accepted for filing as early as Wed., but it hadn’t done so by our deadline. Although he touted extent to which Kan. is rural state, Brownback said “rural opposition” to compromise on 700 MHz timing that Sens. Ensign (R-Nev.) and Kerry (D-Mass.) have been backing “is not helpful.” Bill that would delay auctions indefinitely, sponsored by House Commerce Committee Chmn. Tauzin (R-La.), already has passed House and Ensign and Kerry are sponsoring identical proposal in Senate. Also pending in Senate is bill by Sen. Stevens (R-Alaska), ranking GOP member of Senate Appropriations Committee. His bill would require that FCC hold auctions as scheduled. Compromise that Ensign has been attempting to gather support for would pull out C-block licenses from lower band and hold upper band auction at later date, while keeping lower band auction date (CD May 20 p6). “I cannot support the position that, in order to address the needs of rural interests in my state, this auction should move forward as scheduled,” Brownback said. “This only ensures that while rural interests are served, the national interest is ignored.” He called compromise plan backed by Ensign and Kerry “very fair and reasonable.” Efforts to reach compromise on Hill, however, continues to be stalled for now, several sources said Wed. In part, Stevens hasn’t yet signaled willingness to go along with plan that diverges from his bill. Compromise is warranted even if it requires “a short administrative delay of a few months,” he said. Last week, there was speculation that splitting some licenses from lower band and adding them to upper band could create delay of up to 6 months. One auction expert said this week, however, that software changes required by such plan would be relatively easy to put in place and could be done “in a matter of days.” At hearing, Brownback also urged Senate Commerce Committee Chmn. Hollings (D-S.C.) to convene executive session of panel to address auction issue. “It really does not matter which bill is brought up for a vote, as long as a bill is brought up and amendments can be offered,” he said: “Let the votes fall where they may and let the committee speak on this issue.” Balanced Budget Act of 1997, which requires FCC to deposit proceeds from auction of lower band of 700 MHz by Sept. 30, represents “startlingly bad spectrum management policy,” Brownback said: “Failure by this committee to take action on this issue is even worse.” Lack of FCC public notice on short-form applications accepted for filing by prospective bidders as of late Wed. was seen as sign by some that Commission could be planning short delay. Upfront payments from bidders were due at FCC Tues. Typically, short-form public notice is issued with enough advance of that date to allow minor mistakes to be corrected by carriers planning to participate.