FCC Comr. Martin said he expected agency to reach “reasonable compromise in the next few weeks” on permanent rules on power levels allowing satellite radio “to be truly nationwide without inhibiting the deployment of services in adjacent bands.” He told Satellite Entertainment conference in Monterey, Cal., late last week: “The Commission needs to remember not to be standing in the way of this new service.” Martin also said FCC would act before Congress’s Oct. 5 sunset date on rule barring exclusive deals between cable operators and cable-owned satellite programming. He cautioned that U.S. Appeals Court, D.C., had interpreted statutory requirement of necessity finding as high bar. “Thus, if the Commission determines that the exclusivity rule should be retained, we will need to articulate a complete and coherent analysis based on evidence demonstrating that the rule is, indeed, necessary for today’s market.” On must- carry, FCC is deliberating how rule applies in digital world, but application to nonbroadcast channels isn’t contemplated, he said. Martin spent much of his talk renewing his attack on last week’s (CD April 24 p1) Commission decision on Northpoint’s MVDDS satellite-terrestrial broadband technology. He criticized ruling as permitting far too much interference with DBS service and putting mitigation burden on DBS carriers and their customers.
House Telecom Subcommittee ranking Democrat Markey (Mass.) is circulating draft bill that would create trust fund for digital technology grants out of future wireless auction proceeds. Draft bill also would allocate spectrum for advanced wireless services while keeping intact Bush Administration proposal for separate trust fund for govt. relocation proceeds for incumbent users that may be relocated from spectrum. Markey’s proposal, which panel of industry and academic experts at New America conference said Fri. has bipartisan backing, would reserve first $5 billion derived from applicable spectrum auctions to reimburse Dept. of Defense and other govt. agencies for vacating various spectrum bands. Rest of auction proceeds would be deposited into separate trust fund to provide grants for educational broadband technology and deployment projects, making those funds available to entities currently eligible for universal service funding. Up to $300 million from such grants would be made available annually to public TV stations to upgrade analog stations to digital. Markey is expected to introduce bill this week and Sen. Dodd (D-Conn.) is said to be drafting somewhat broader companion bill that also has bipartisan backing.
FCC released report and order (R&O) Fri. for establishment of policies and services for nongeostationary satellite orbit (NGSO), fixed satellite service in Ku-band. Agency adopted plan at its April 18 agenda meeting (CD April 19 p3). R&O outlined plan to use angular separation to avoid in-line interference, with default sharing plan that allows satellite operator to use other half of spectrum if interference issues can’t be settled with rival company. Spectrum-sharing mechanism is premised on need for NGSO FSS antennas to be capable of pointing in different directions to limit interference as way to allow multiple systems to operate.
FCC’s proposed regulatory fee schedule for FY 2002 calls for “disproportionate increase” for paging carriers, American Assn. of Paging Carriers (AAPC) said in comments filed with Commission April 23. AAPC said paging carriers would see 60% increase in fees and urged FCC to reduce amount by “at least 20%.” New schedule would raise fees to 8 cents per pager, up from 5 cents last year, but AAPC said 4 cents would be more accurate if FCC had used more “consistent” data to derive figure. AAPC said Commission used formula that divided revenue requirement by number of paging units in service and didn’t use appropriate number of paging units. AAPC is new trade assn. for paging companies.
FCC granted AT&T’s request for additional time to convert informal complaint against CTC Telcom to formal complaint. AT&T and CTC have reached tentative agreements and are optimistic that settlement will be finalized, Commission said.
Software Defined Radio (SDR) rulemaking at FCC is “step forward” in regulatory effort needed to “jump-start” nascent technology, Vanu Bose told Technology Advisory Council (TAC) at FCC Fri. Bose is pres. of Vanu Inc., start-up company developing SDR commercial applications. SDR involves radios that provide software control of modulation techniques, wideband or narrowband operation, communications security functions (such as hopping), waveform requirements. For example, SDR user devices and network equipment can be programmed dynamically in software to reconfigure characteristics for better performance, richer feature sets or advanced services. SDR technology is applicable across wireless industry in both military and commercial sectors, Bose said. With its ability to adapt spectrum dynamically, “I'd like to see spectrum become a commodity that is traded” rather than auctioned as property, he said: “Spectrum licensing needs to be less static.” FCC should consider making it possible to “sublicense” spectrum. “In this way spectrum is used as a function of demand, not regulation.” Bose envisioned commodity spectrum market with authorized traders to whom wireless providers would make real-time bids on small geographic blocks “to acquire spectrum for region and time required, for next 3 years or next 2 weeks,” he said. Edward Thomas, chief of FCC Office of Engineering & Technology (OET), said Commission should give technology closer look: “The time is ideal to start a public dialog on the implementation of software radio as it bears on spectrum management, and what is needed to get the technology rolling.” Bose defined 3 classes of SDR: (1) Modal SDR, where equipment has more than radio mode built in. An example is handset that can receive both CDMA and AMPS wireless calls. (2) Reconfigurable SDR equipment, where all signal processing is reconfigurable in software. Military has developed technology in Speakeasy II project in which equipment is reprogrammable to accommodate 10 military radio systems. Reconfigurable SDR equipment usually is reprogrammed by manufacturer, rather than user, Bose said. (3) Software radio uses only software for signal processing and can be changed dynamically by user or service provider. “Software radio takes advantage of Moore’s Law,” he said, referring to rapid development of computer processors. SDR already is practical for fixed wireless infrastructure, he said. Bose said his company had developed systems that used “commodity off-shelf processors” to lower costs. Today’s general purpose computer technology allows “signal processing of 50 analog [wireless] channels on a single processor,” he said. Discussion moved to cellular handsets, application that he said was 3-5 years away. Problems are higher costs compared with single-purpose ASIC processor used in conventional handsets and higher energy consumption and heat from powerful processor. Admitting SDR never can be as efficient as single purpose ASIC, Bose said its advantage became apparent when more than one radio mode was needed in handset. Today SDR can be more cost effective if handset is designed to handle 3 radio modes: “I expect the crossover point to be 2 modes.” Power consumption and poor battery life will be solved “in future” only with more efficient processors and improved battery technology, he said. Formed by OET under Federal Advisory Committee Act to advise Commission on technical issues, TAC periodically gathers diverse group of academics, scientists and chief technology officers of technology firms representing telecom, data networking, software, consumer electronics and amateur radio interests. Next scheduled meeting is June 12.
MONTEREY, Cal. -- EchoStar and DirecTV are ruining their credibility with FCC, creating much deeper and longer term problem than likely failure of EchoStar’s takeover bid, industry lawyers warned at Satellite Entertainment conference here late Wed. FCC commissioners and staff “believe they are being treated with disrespect by the 2 companies,” panelist Scott Harris, former FCC International Bureau chief, said: “I don’t think that’s a good way to deal with a regulator, whether or not you've got a merger.”
FCC issued notices of apparent liability, including combined proposed fines of $264,000, against AT&T Wireless and SpectraSite for several safety-related violations of Communications Act and agency’s antenna structure rules. Commission said violations included failure to register, light and paint antenna structures and failure to replace lights or repair lighting failure alarm systems “as soon as practicable.” It said tower violations came to light in “routine antenna structure inspections” and related investigations. Some of inspections began after FAA complained about tower light outages, Commission said. FCC is proposing $153,000 fine against AT&T Wireless for 9 violations of Sec. 303 of Communications Act and part of FCC rules and $111,000 against SpectraSite for 6 violations. Commission said fines were based on considerations such as seriousness of safety-related violations and each company’s “prior history of antenna structure rules violations.” Notice said AT&T Wireless’s violations came “within a year of a prior forfeiture against AT&T Wireless for similar violations.” It said: “Our rules relating to tower lighting and marking are important to public safety. AT&T Wireless’s apparent inability to comply with these rules on a consistent basis is very troubling.” Due to those factors, Commission said it tripled base forfeiture amounts. “Future violations will result in even more serious enforcement action,” FCC said. Notice on SpectraSite violations used similarly strong language on repeated violations. Towers at issue included sites in Woodland, Cal.; Bluffdale, Utah; Tyler, Tex.; Fellsmere, Fla.; Center Township, Pa.
CEOs of 54 CLECs and related technology companies sent letter to President Bush, arguing against pending policy proposals at FCC that would spur RBOC broadband investment. April 24 letter touted policies adopted by Commission in wake of Telecom Act of 1996 that it said had prompted competitors to enter local marketplace. “The FCC, however, is now considering adopting one-sided policies that could squelch competition among local broadband providers and recreate a monopoly for broadband services,” letter said. It was signed by members of ALTS, CompTel, including top executives of NewSouth Communications, U.S. LEC, McLeodUSA, Allegiance Telecom, Covad Communications, Time Warner Telecom. Letter said pending proposals at FCC could “deny competitors the opportunity to interconnect with the Bell company networks. As a result, the telecommunications services of 19 million consumers who currently receive service from competitors could be disconnected and many consumers would encounter significant rate increases.” Letter estimated that 77,000 high-tech employees could lose their jobs. Rule changes aren’t needed to spur RBOC broadband investment, CLECs told White House. “Under the existing rules, Bell companies have continued to invest, expand their use of fiber and rapidly deploy DSL.” Executives said CLEC market share increased in 2001 to 10% of local market from 8.5%. “While competitors have made great progress, the market is not yet fully competitive,” letter said. “We ask that you give the free market and fair competition a chance to work with the existing policies.” Letter said challenge now wasn’t broadband supply, it was lack of demand, which CEOs said Administration had “rightfully” started to champion. “We urge you to refrain from picking broadband winners and losers,” executives told Bush. “Instead we encourage you to focus on the demand side of the equation while letting us compete fairly in the broadband marketplace under the existing policies.”
Intense round of discussions that went late into night Wed. reached tentative agreement on broadcast flag to protect DTV content from illegal copying, House subcommittee was told Thurs. Talks among standard-setting 5C body, MPAA and computer industry resulted in “an important agreement,” Panasonic/Matsushita Electric Corp. of America CTO Paul Liao told House Telecom Subcommittee. While he said there still were some dissenters, Liao predicted final report would be issued by original target date of May 17. AOL Time Warner CEO-Designate Richard Parsons and News Corp. Pres. Peter Chernin (testifying from L.A. by satellite) also praised agreement and predicted quick conclusion on issue, but Philips Consumer Electronics CEO Larry Blanford objected to process, calling for congressional intervention in talks to ensure set manufacturers weren’t placed under onerous burdens.