Due to outstanding accounting issues raised by the SEC, a conference call set to discuss EchoStar’s financial results focused instead on operational issues. The company discussed its new agreement with Viacom, settlement agreements with Gemstar, and future plans for broadband and multichannel video distribution and data service (MVDDS) spectrum. EchoStar Chmn. Charles Ergen said the company “wouldn’t be able to survive” without a carriage agreement with CBS and Viacom. He said the final deal wasn’t “as good as we wanted, but it’s good enough.”
The State Department's Washington File reports that chief negotiators in the U.S.-Bahrain free trade discussions announced the successful conclusion of the second round of talks on March 5, 2004, and voiced expectations that negotiations on the Free Trade Agreement (FTA) would be concluded in the first half of 2004. (Washington File Pub 03/05/04, available at http://usinfo.state.gov/xarchives/display.html?p=washfile-english&y=2004&m=March&x=20040305180207ndyblehs0.8560602&t=livefeeds/wf-latest.html)
The FCC could still include an item on a national programmatic agreement (NPA) for tower siting on its agenda for the Thurs. open meeting, though it wasn’t on the sunshine notice (CD March 5 p7). Several sources said Comr. Abernathy had sought additional time for discussion of the proposed tower siting pact. Once an item is in the public notice for an agenda meeting, ex parte communications with the FCC initiated by outside parties must stop. This way, more time is allowed for communication on outstanding issues, sources said. Several industry sources said they viewed the opening as a positive development after thorny NPA issues prompted a flurry of ex parte filings last week. The pending NPA aims to streamline tower siting reviews under Sec. 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act. Sec. 106 requires federal agencies to consider the effects of an “undertaking,” including tower construction, on historic properties. Last month, wireless carriers and historic preservation officials failed to bridge an impasse on several issues connected to the proposed agreement (CD Feb 20 p3). The Commission had given stakeholders until Feb. 19 to work out remaining differences, delaying a vote on the item from Feb. to the March agenda meeting. The agreement has been expected to be teed up for FCC approval as a report and order. The agreement was designed to become a pact signed by the FCC, Advisory Council for Historic Preservation and the National Conference of State Historic Preservation Officers. Meanwhile, Kris Monteith, deputy chief of the FCC’s Consumer & Governmental Affairs Bureau (CGB), told industry stakeholders the agency had made changes to a draft best practices document in response to concerns raised in discussions last week. The FCC has been working with the United South & Eastern Tribes (USET) on voluntary best practices for tower siting that could affect sites of cultural and religious significance on tribal land. Among concerns raised by industry over the earlier draft was the extent to which a non-response by a tribe on a tower siting request would lead to the potentially time-consuming step of FCC intergovernmental consultation with tribes (CD March 5 p9). “We will be making some changes to the draft document that we believe will be viewed positively from industry standpoint,” Monteith said, noting the changes stemmed from a discussion the Wireless Bureau and CGB had last week with USET officials. The agency also said it would release the draft best practices document in full to solicit industry feedback. Earlier in the week, the agency had circulated a summary, which Monteith said in the e-mail had created uncertainty in industry about what the rest of the document looked like. She said the full document was similar to the extensive summary released earlier. The FCC asked for industry feedback by the end of the day Thurs. “This is a good thing,” said one industry source of the additional time the FCC gave before the NPA is placed on an agenda for an open meeting. Meanwhile, a coalition of wireless companies told the FCC that negotiations in the last few weeks with the ACHP and others on the NPA had advanced in some areas. They cited progress on the issue of properties whose eligibility for the National Register of Historic Places is eligible but not yet determined. The coalition, which includes Cingular, Verizon Wireless, PCIA and T-Mobile, said compromise had been reached on the issue of potentially eligible properties. The agreement was that a requirement could be removed from the NPA concerning identification surveys for potentially eligible properties for visual effects. Other areas of agreement were that the NPA not mandate the use of qualified professionals for identification of eligible properties readily ascertainable from the office of a state historic preservation officer. In a separate filing last week, CTIA said U.S. Cellular has stressed the importance of the practical implications of the NPA as it relates to mid-size carriers and their quests for status as eligible telecom carriers. CTIA raised concerns that the NPA not dramatically increase costs and create more delays for the review process.
Satellite operators will have an uphill struggle in a broadband market where DSL is just gaining traction against cable broadband, speakers said at a cable broadband panel at the Satellite 2004 conference Fri. The cable broadband proponents said satellite’s niche market for broadband would continue to be rural, but a separate panel of satellite broadband proponents disagreed.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has issued a March 1, 2004 version of Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) and responses regarding its final rule requiring the advance electronic presentation of information pertaining to cargo (sea, air, rail, or truck) prior to its being brought into, or sent from, the U.S.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has posted to its Web site the Winter 2003 issue of its "ACE Modernization Monitor" newsletter.
CTIA’s board gave a $13-million shot in the arm last year to the group’s Wireless Foundation, which the non-profit in turn has largely reinvested in a real estate transaction for the group’s new Washington hq. The Foundation’s decision to take a stake in the land deal was made “to create a predictable return on the endowment” created by the gift to the foundation, a CTIA spokesman said. “The CTIA board’s decision to fund the Foundation and the Foundation’s decision to purchase the land were 2 separate decisions.”
An FCC draft of voluntary best practices on tower siting reviews involving tribes would call for the Commission to initiate govt.-to-govt. consultation with a tribe if it failed to respond to initial contact from a siting applicant. FCC Chmn. Powell said last month at an Arlington, Va., conference of the United South & Eastern Tribes (USET) that USET and the Commission were in the final stages of drafting voluntary best practices for siting towers that could affect religious sites on tribal land. The best practices involve identifying “practical, voluntary” methods by which the tower industry and USET tribes can work to preserve properties of religious and cultural significance to tribes. The National Historic Preservation Act requires federal agencies to take into consideration the effects of their undertaking on historic properties included in or eligible for the National Register of Historic Places, including tribal sites. One industry source noted that although the best practices were voluntary they were important because tribes may require them as part of negotiations on tower siting and because they could play a critical role in showing a good faith effort to negotiate. FCC staff recently asked for industry feedback on the summary of best practices. The source said one industry concern about the draft best practices was the extent to which a non-response from a tribe would entail FCC intergovernmental consultation with tribes, a step that would add time to the siting review process. Another concern involves compensation of tribes for professional services. A summary of the draft best practices notes that in line with the requirements of the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation, payment to a tribe is appropriate when an agency or applicant asks the tribe to take on a role as consultant in identifying historic sites of tribal significance. The summary said that in “providing their special expertise, tribes are fulfilling a consultant role.” One source said that a concern by some in industry is not that tribes be compensated for providing such consultation services, but the extent to which such payments would be made to tribal representatives acting as both consultants on a project and judges as to whether the proposed tower raised objections. The draft summary sets up a 2-step process in which applicants can contact a tribe “in a good faith, respectful and culturally sensitive manner befitting the nature of correspondence with a sovereign government.” The tribal official would have 10 business days to advise a tower applicant whether there isn’t a likelihood of eligible properties of interest to the tribe in the area. If there may be properties eligible for the National Register, the tower siting applicant and tribal official would discuss protection measures. If the tribe didn’t respond in 10 business days, the siting applicant would advise the tribe and the FCC in writing of this failure to respond, the draft summary said. “Upon receipt of information that a tribe has failed to respond to an applicant’s initial contact, the Commission will initiate government-to-government consultation under Section 106,” the draft said. USET said last month the agreement on best practices affirmed “government to government” relations between USET tribes and the U.S. The FCC also created a database last month for a voluntary system that Chmn. Powell said would provide an “early notification” of tower construction that might affect historic properties or tribal religious sites.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has posted to its Web site the Winter 2003 issue of its "ACE Modernization Monitor" newsletter.
N.Y.’s highest state court ruled 6-1 that restrictive covenants in property deeds can’t automatically be set aside to permit construction of a wireless telecom tower. The N.Y. Court of Appeals (Case 04-15) upheld a 1957 restrictive deed covenant on a parcel of land in the town of Pound Ridge that prohibited construction of anything other than single-family homes on the property. Verizon wireless leased a 2,000-sq.- ft. plot in the Stone Hill development to erect a 120-ft. tower. It got approvals from the town and started construction, but neighbors filed suit claiming that a restrictive covenant on the property barred the tower. Verizon argued the covenant must be set aside because the chosen site was the best for providing wireless service. The case wound through the lower state courts, which all upheld the covenant. The state’s high court also upheld the covenant, saying the public interest in wireless service would override the restrictive covenant only if Verizon could have proven that no suitable alternative sites existed for placing its tower.