The Wireless Bureau is proposing that all Wi-Fi-enabled phones -- including those that can also be used to place standard calls on a cellular network -- be excluded from the list of phones compatible with hearing aids, sources said Thursday. The action could discourage carriers from adding Wi-Fi phones in their stores and set back efforts to open wireless networks, sources said.
Howard Buskirk
Howard Buskirk, Executive Senior Editor, joined Warren Communications News in 2004, after covering Capitol Hill for Telecommunications Reports. He has covered Washington since 1993 and was formerly executive editor at Energy Business Watch, editor at Gas Daily and managing editor at Natural Gas Week. Previous to that, he was a staff reporter for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution and the Greenville News. Follow Buskirk on Twitter: @hbuskirk
FCC Chairman Kevin Martin circulated an order approving T-Mobile’s acquisition of SunCom Wireless for $2.4 billion in cash and assumed debt, sources said. The merger order isn’t controversial like those in other recent wireless mergers, such as AT&T-Dobson. The purchase strengthens T-Mobile’s coverage in the southeastern states. Suncom, with 1.1 million customers, owns GSM/GPRS/EDGE networks in Tennessee, Georgia, North and South Carolina, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Stanford Group analyst Michael Nelson said that under the agreement the merger isn’t expected to close before April 15 even if the FCC approves it immediately.
The CTIA and the TIA urged the FCC to adopt without major change recommendations by the Commercial Mobile Service Alert Advisory Committee for emergency alerts sent cellphones and other wireless devices. Carriers and gear makers particularly opposed proposals that carriers be capable of broadcasting alerts to areas smaller than counties.
FCC Commissioners Michael Copps and Jonathan Adelstein accused the FCC of acting in haste, without doing the required competitive analysis, in approving AT&T’s acquisition of 700 MHz spectrum from Aloha Partners. Commissioners voted 4-1 to approve the acquisition Jan. 25 (CD Jan 28 p1), but the order was not released until late Monday. Copps dissented, while Adelstein issued a concurrence. The FCC’s three Republican members didn’t issue statements.
The NTIA said Tuesday it seeks participants for its long-awaited spectrum testbed to test the effectiveness of dynamic spectrum access technology. Companies that want to take part must notify the agency by Feb. 28.
Auction bidding for the C-block with its open-access mandate has trailed that for the A and B blocks considerably. Meanwhile, Verizon Wireless apparently made a move on the C- block throughout Monday’s bidding, launching a high bid for the C-block, which analysts generally agreed had been headed into Google’s hands.
The market, not the FCC, prompted recent carrier actions to open networks to new devices, FCC Commissioner Robert McDowell said in comments on the agency’s latest and longest- awaited edition of its annual wireless-competition report. McDowell said that in the report, released Monday, the FCC makes far too much of benefits to competition that it claims resulted from what he called “untested” open-access mandates imposed for some spectrum licenses offered in the 700 MHz auction.
The FCC decision to require anonymous bidding in the 700 MHz auction forced the agency to impose unprecedented controls on information. Even commissioners and their staff have had to sign nondisclosure forms to gain access to material on who is bidding for which licenses. Wireless industry sources fret about potential leaks that could give one bidder an advantage over other auction participants. FCC Chairman Kevin Martin said Thursday during a press conference that he couldn’t discuss whether the commission has looked into allegation of collusion before the auction began.
The FCC probably will grant an additional extension of the broadcast auxiliary service clearing deadline, though no order had circulated on the 8th floor by Friday, sources said. The deadline is Monday. The relocation was to be completed in September, but Sprint Nextel and broadcasters say it will take until late 2009. The FCC has extended the deadline twice. MSS operators need access to spectrum local broadcasters use for electronic news gathering. Because it was swept up in the 800 MHz band reconfiguration, Sprint is paying to move the auxiliary service off the spectrum that MSS wants to use. “Sprint and the broadcasters have submitted a comprehensive plan that seeks to complete the BAS transition by August of 2009 and all parties are executing against that plan to complete the transition while we await the FCC’s feedback,” Sprint said in a statement Friday. “Great strides have been made -- Las Vegas and Harrisburg, Pa., have completed the transition -- and we expect many more major markets to finish in the coming months.”
FCC Chairman Kevin Martin said repeatedly Thursday he has not abandoned hope that a bidder will still step up to win the public safety D-block spectrum. In a critical development for the 700 MHz auction, a bidder Thursday morning exceeded the aggregate reserve price of $4.6 billion for the C-block of massive, regional licenses. That means the FCC will not have to reauction the block and open access requirements like those pushed by Google will apply to the spectrum. The FCC tallied $15.6 billion in provisional winning bids through 21 bidding rounds as of late Thursday.