FCC said Verizon violated one of conditions placed on Bell Atlantic-GTE merger by not letting Global NAPs extend R.I. reciprocal compensation agreement into 2 other states, Mass. and Va. FCC said language in merger conditions required Verizon to fulfill Global NAPs request and extend contract terms to Mass. and Va. However, agency said it couldn’t order payment of reciprocal compensation because Global NAPs and Verizon still must submit agreements to state regulators in Mass. and Va. for approval. Global NAPs had contended that Verizon owed it more than $26 million in past due reciprocal compensation in those 2 states.
Several industry experts and consumer group representatives told FCC Thurs. they would like to see Commission gather more “granular” data on status of wireless competition. Several speakers at FCC forum on data-gathering on commercial mobile radio services (CMRS) stressed that such information was particularly important as Commission altered how it reviewed wireless mergers once spectrum cap was phased out in Jan. 2003. Forum placed emphasis on how to analyze data on wireless competition in rural and other historically underserved areas. Much of information that FCC now has when it compiles annual report on CMRS competition is either focused on national statistics or, in some cases, more urban markets, said Deputy Wireless Bureau Chief James Schlichting. “In the rural areas, we are very interested in finding out how we can measure how markets are performing, the number of competitors, the prices that are available for consumers, the service quality, the coverage, the features and options that are available to consumers and the level of subscribership,” he said.
Commercial Wireless Div. of FCC’s Wireless Bureau turned down request by Minn. PCS Ltd. for extension of time to meet construction requirements of its PCS license. Division notified rural Minn. carrier its license automatically cancelled Sept. 17. Carrier had cited difficulties in siting tower due to local opposition as one reason build-out requirements weren’t met. But in order released Wed., Commercial Wireless Div. rejected that argument. Minn. PCS was required to provide service to at least 25% of population of its basic trading area or make showing of substantial service by Sept. 17, 2001. Carrier told FCC its level of coverage as of 5-year construction deadline reached only 9.9%. Minn. PCS asked for 12 more months to meet requirements. FCC said Minn. PCS had failed to show it missed construction deadline due to causes beyond its control. Because of local opposition to tower construction in its market, Minn. PCS said it had been challenged in antenna construction. FCC said carrier had “provided no evidence that its situation is unique or unusual compared to the difficulties experienced by most PCS carriers in constructing their networks.” Commission granted special temporary authority so that Minn. PCS’s current subscribers could be transitioned off that spectrum.
Correction: FCC Common Carrier Bureau will be renamed Wireline Competition Bureau (CD Feb 27 p7).
CLECs served 9% of nation’s 192 million switched telecom lines at end of June, FCC said in latest report on local phone competition issued Wed. Report said that showed 16% growth in 6 months since Dec. 31, 2000, when CLEC share was 7.7%. Other statistics as of June 30: (1) 55% of CLEC switched lines served medium and large business, institutional and government customers while 23% of ILEC lines served those big customers. (2) CLECs served 5.5% of residential and small business market. (3) 1/3 of CLECs’ service was provided over their own loop facilities, 23% via resold ILEC services, 44% using unbundled network elements (UNEs) from ILECs. (4) CLEC resale has been declining steadily with ILECs reselling 4.4 million lines to other carriers at end of June, compared with 5.4 million at end of 2000. (5) ILECs were providing 8 million UNE loops at end of June, up 50% from end of 2000. About 3.2 million of those UNE loops were provided without switching, 4.8 million with switching component. (6) At least one CLEC existed in 60% of nation’s zip codes. FCC said that in future reports it would look more closely at competition from other “multiple platform providers” such as wireless, satellite, cable. On related issue, Verizon said studies had shown its entry into long distance markets in N.Y., Mass., Pa. and Conn. had resulted in annual savings of $1.8 billion for residential consumers in both local and long distance services. Company said it based estimate on projections from variety of sources such as Telecom Research & Action Center, Consumer Federation of America, TeleNomic Research. Verizon said studies showed that after it entered long distance business, “both local and long distance competitors work harder to gain and keep customers.” As result, customers get better deals, it said.
House 273-157 passed modified version of Tauzin-Dingell data deregulation bill (HR-1542) Wed. after unsuccessful move by congressional CLEC supporters to block what had been touted as competition-friendly amendment. One of most contentious issues of day stemmed from Rules Committee proposal Tues. night to allow floor debate on line-sharing amendment by Reps. Towns (D-N.Y.) and Buyer (R-Ind.), which industry opponents said was falsely presented as CLEC- friendly measure. Debate also was allowed on CLEC-backed amendment by Reps. Cannon (R-La.), Conyers (D-Mich.) and several other Tauzin-Dingell opponents including Telecom Subcommittee ranking minority member Markey (D-Mass.). However, rules approved by House Wed. morning allowed Towns- Buyer to be introduced as substitute to Cannon-Conyers, thereby removing any chance of movement on CLEC-supported measure.
“At some point you have to be honest with yourself and say ‘This is not working,'” FCC Chmn. Powell said Wed., reflecting on Commission’s 6-year losing record in federal court on its media ownership rules. Powell told Vienna, Va., breakfast hosted by Northern Va. Technology Council, CapNet and Information Technology Assn. of America that FCC “needs to do an extraordinary study of the media space today.” FCC spokesman told us after speech that agency’s Media Ownership Task Force was determining how that would be done, perhaps through Notice of Inquiry (NoI), but promised proceeding would be open to public comment.
Paxson Communications and DirecTV filed joint request for modification of FCC Cable Bureau decision requiring DirecTV to carry certain Paxson TV stations within 60 days while companies attempted to negotiate solution. Parties asked that filing date for Paxson be extended to March 15. FCC said it preferred parties involved in disputes work out differences.
In Further Notice of Proposed Rulemaking released Wed., FCC requested comment on issues such as who should be eligible to use 50 MHz of spectrum recently allocated at 4.9 GHz to public safety operations. At Feb. 14 agenda meeting, FCC approved order that allocated band to public safety uses such as high-speed digital technologies. Further NPRM seeks comment on: (1) Licensing and service rules for band. (2) Segmentation or channeling plans. (3) Impact of adjacent U.S. Navy operations. (4) Suggestions on how to use band in way that wouldn’t interfere with adjacent radio astronomy operations. Commission’s earlier tentative conclusions about band had been that additional spectrum exclusively for public safety didn’t need to be set aside at 4.9 GHz. Order approved by Commission reflected altered thinking, particularly given spectrum needs of public safety following Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. “The acts of terrorism committed against the United States on Sept. 11, 2001, reinforce the critical nature of the public safety community’s responsibilities to our nation’s safety and well-being,” FCC said. Among issues on which it seeks comment are whether eligibility standards for 4.9 GHz should be limited to state and local emergency workers and nongovt. public safety providers who work with govt. agencies. Item said there was no statutory language that required FCC to limit users to such operators. Commission seeks comment on whether broader description of public safety radio services should define eligibility in that band. That would broaden users beyond traditional public safety entities such as police and fire to others “whose facilities may be directly involved in an emergency and who provide essential services to the public at large,” FCC said. “We recognize that expanding the universe of users on this spectrum may result in congestion of the band, hindering the communications of emergency workers and causing the traditional public safety users to compete for valuable spectrum.” Commission said it was exploring “nontraditional means” of carrying out public safety use in band. One example would be allowing commercial licensees to use band to serve public safety agencies. NPRM seeks comment on how such arrangements could work. Another possibility, FCC said, would be to let commercial users be licensed on secondary basis. It also is exploring whether to allow federal govt. entities to use that spectrum.
Virgin Mobile USA, which plans to resell wireless services provided by Sprint PCS this year, outlined its Enhanced 911 phase-in plans for FCC. Virgin said in Feb. 22 ex parte filing it planned to begin operating as mobile virtual network operator in U.S. in 2nd quarter. U.K.-based Virgin told agency that because it wasn’t FCC licensee and didn’t have its own wireless network facilities, E-911 requirements for automatic location identification (ALI) didn’t apply. “Nevertheless, as a demonstration of its good faith interest in providing E-911 Phase 2 ALI to its customers,” Virgin said it was “voluntarily” providing E-911 report to FCC. Virgin said that as new U.S. wireless provider targeting “low-end” prepaid customers, it must offer very competitive pricing of both service and equipment to develop market share. Handset-based assisted-GPS (A-GPS) system that Sprint is using for E-911 Phase 2 capability uses handsets “that are among the most expensive customer units on the market,” Virgin told Commission. “Moreover, at this time, A-GPS-enabled customer units are not available to Virgin.” Before Virgin can begin selling such handsets to customers, company said equipment has to be more widely available and cheaper so there’s not “tremendous price differential” between handsets with and without this capability. Virgin said it plans to begin selling and activating A-GPS-enabled handsets Feb. 15, 2003, ensuring at least 25% of all new handsets activated after June 30, 2003, have A-GPS capabilities. At least 50% of handsets sold after Sept. 30, 2003, will have this capability, with 100% target set for March 31, 2004. End date for ensuring all handsets activated are GPS-enabled reflects same benchmark that Commission set for Verizon Wireless in its E-911 Phase 2 waiver, Virgin said. Virgin also said it isn’t altering Dec. 31, 2005, date for ensuring 95% of all subscriber handsets in service are ALI-capable.