Wireless carriers shouldn’t be able to decide on their own whether to send emergency alerts to areas smaller than counties, FCC Chairman Kevin Martin said Thursday. “In the end it’s not just up to the carrier,” Martin told reporters. Before his speech, industry officials offered regulators recommendations and predictions in a Practising Law Institute conference panel.
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 told fellow commissioners in an official communication that the agency won’t vote at the Dec. 18 agenda meeting on rules for emergency alert system warnings to cellphones and other wireless devices. Martin hopes for a vote before the meeting, though some fellow commissioners still are studying concerns raised by wireless carriers, sources said Tuesday.
Sprint Nextel told the FCC revised rules for the 800 MHz reconfiguration along the Canadian border must take into account the carrier’s spectrum sharing with Telus, the largest holder of 800 MHz spectrum in Canada. The Enterprise Wireless Alliance (EWA) said quick resolution of border questions is crucial for providers that have faced years of uncertainty.
FCC Chairman Kevin Martin has overruled the Commercial Mobile Service Alert Advisory Committee, which drew up rules for emergency warnings to cellphones and other devices, and will propose that carriers have to send alerts to areas smaller than counties. The mandate could scare carriers away from agreeing to send subscribers warnings, wireless industry sources said. Under the WARN Act that set up the committee which drafted the rules, carriers need not send emergency alerts. Martin circulated a proposed order that otherwise would adopt rules proposed by the committee. He’s expected to ask for a vote at the Dec. 18 agenda meeting, but it could come earlier.
The AT&T-Dobson Communications merger order could have long-term effects on the wireless marketplace, creating as it does a new, higher screen level for when a merger raises market power concerns, industry officials said. The order (CD Nov 16 p10) states that with the addition of 700 MHz spectrum to be auctioned next year, a merged carrier can hold up to 94 MHz of spectrum in a given market without triggering more detailed FCC review. The previous standard was 70 MHz. Sources said the provision was made part of the order at the suggestion of Wireless Bureau Chief Economist Walter Strack.
The FCC seem close to releasing a proposed rulemaking taking up a dispute between XM and Sirius and broadband wireless companies over the 2.3 GHz band, sources said. The rulemaking likely will be short on tentative conclusions and mainly seek comment on proposed rules for the band submitted separately by Sirius and the Wireless Communications Service (WCS) Coalition.
The 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, in Philadelphia, ordered the FCC to respond within a week to a challenge to designated entity rules applied during 2006’s advanced wireless services auction. The court was acting on an October petition for mandamus by Council Tree and others. Council Tree previously asked the court to order FCC action on a reconsideration petition on the rules that Council Tree filed about 18 months ago.
The Federal-State Joint Board for Universal Service has agreed to a permanent cap for the high cost part of the Universal Service Fund, most likely at 2007 levels, regulatory and industry sources said Wednesday. The proposal would also create separate funds for wireline, wireless and broadband.
Reed Hundt, chairman in 1997 when the FCC approved an order authorizing the satellite radio service, voiced general support for the XM-Sirius merger in comments filed at the agency. Hundt said the 1997 digital audio radio service (DARS) order’s bars on an operator’s owning both licensees weren’t necessarily meant to be permanent. The FCC sought comment during the summer on whether DARS is a “binding” rule, meaning that the commission would have to grant a waiver to approve the XM-Sirius merger (CD June 28 p5).
The Department of Defense is making considerable progress in relocating department licensees from spectrum that the FCC sold last year in the advanced wireless services (AWS) auction, T-Mobile said in a statement released late Monday. DoD is a major incumbent in the AWS spectrum, though 11 other agencies also must be cleared.