XM and Sirius compete not only with one other but with “terrestrial radio, pre-recorded music devices, mobile phones, and fixed and mobile internet services,” economist and former FCC Commissioner Harold Furchtgott-Roth said. His new report addresses an issue on which the merger’s fate likely hinges: In terms of assessing market power, is satellite radio a unique market or part of a much larger world?
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
CTIA, AT&T, Verizon and Qwest told the FCC the record the agency has built through a notice of inquiry shows that equal access and nondiscrimination rules make no sense in a competitive world. But the National Association of State Utility Consumer Advocates (NASUCA) said the FCC should keep in mind that all comments opposing these requirements come from “mammoth” companies seeking weaker regulation.
The District of Columbia backed Fairfax County, Va., as it petitioned to have until July 29, 2010, to reband its 800 MHz channels. The completion deadline is June 26, 2008. Other area cities and counties are rallying behind Fairfax. The extension should apply to the entire national capital region (NCR), whose jurisdictions are “inseparable if the existing and necessary interoperability of NCR- jurisdiction public safety radio system is to be maintained,” D.C. said. “The past 20 years, these 14 national capital regional licensees have built one of the most advanced public safety radio systems in the United States, in terms of interoperability,” the city of Manassas, Va., said. “That interoperability will be interrupted unless the NCR licensees can coordinate the rebanding of these systems with due care and reasonable planning.”
The Alliance for Telecommunications Industry Solutions (ATIS) called on the FCC to make major changes to its hearing-aid-compatibility (HAC) requirements for wireless handsets, which require that by Feb. 18, 2008, 50 percent of all handsets offered by carriers and manufacturers be rated as suitable for use with hearing aids. Instead, ATIS recommended that carriers and handset makers be required to offer an increasing number of suitable handsets. ATIS also recommended the FCC require more handsets than current rules dictate for use by those with the most severe hearing loss. “If adopted, this proposal will ensure that consumers with hearing loss receive the full benefit of a variety of wireless services while adequately addressing the complexities associated with operating digital handsets and hearing aids together,” ATIS said. “The current 50 percent requirement set forth in… the Commission’s rules present many challenges to providing hearing-aid compatible devices in a technology- neutral manner,” ATIS said: “In addition, the FCC’s existing rules require only a very small number of devices to be compatible with telecoil-equipped hearing aids, generally used by people with severe hearing loss.” ATIS noted that GSM carriers in particular would be hard pressed to meet the 50 percent mandate since the requirement is “either technologically not achievable or only achievable through the development of unmarketable products.” As an alternative to the 50 percent mandate ATIS recommends that the largest carriers be required to offer a minimum of eight HAC-enabled handsets rated M3 or better, or suitable for use with hearing aids, by Feb. 18, 2008. This would ramp up to 10 HAC-enabled handsets by Feb. 18, 2011. At the same time, large carriers would be required to offer more handsets rated T-3 or better, usable by those with severe hearing loss. Under current rules, carriers are required to offer two handset models for each air interface, GSM or CDMA, that offer T3-or-better functionality. Instead, ATIS said, the FCC should require that at least 33 percent of the total number of digital wireless handset models for each interface be rated at T3-or-better by Feb. 18, 2008. Carriers would have to ensure that they offer at least three T-3 rated handsets by Feb. 18, 2008, increasing to 10 by Feb. 18, 2011. ATIS proposes similar changes for handset manufacturers, lowering the mandated levels for M-3 rated handsets but raising it for T-3 rated sets. Under the current requirement, 50 percent of their handsets must meet the M3-or-better rating by Feb. 18, 2008. ATIS proposes lowering the requirement to 33 percent of handsets. But requirements for T-3 sets would be increased -- from a minimum of two per interface to 33 percent of their handset offerings by Feb. 18, 2011.
From NASCAR to the NBA, sports industry and broadcaster representatives Tuesday began a full court press at the FCC and on Capitol Hill, describing what they call a major threat posed by an FCC proposal to open broadcast white spaces to unlicensed use. They called the effort the first coordinated outreach by all major sports against the white spaces move. The group explained that wireless connections loom far larger in sports than generally thought and face serious interference problems if unlicensed devices share the frequencies they use.
Fighting over the XM-Sirius merger is in a new phase, with both sides filibustering the FCC on why the merger should or should not be approved, with the satellite operators coming on more aggressively than in the past. Analysts differ on whether the deal is likely to pass regulatory muster.
Motorola, railroads, utilities, businesses and other users of the 150-512 MHz public land mobile radio (PLMR) agreed with New York City that the FCC sowed confusion in March in an order stating its intention to require users to convert to 6.25 kHz technology. In May, New York asked the FCC to agree to seek comment before mandating the transition. The FCC order is effective once the commission determines sufficient gear is available and is part of an initiative dating to 1995 to promote more efficient use of the bands.
A bill aimed at criminalizing caller ID spoofing and authorizing the FCC to curb the practice has his support, Sen. Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, said Thursday. The ranking Senate Commerce Committee member conditioned his backing on revisions to address direct marketers’ concerns. At a spoofing hearing, Stevens predicted the committee will mark up the Truth in Caller ID Act of 2007 (S-704) next week and send it to the Senate floor. Sponsor Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., urged fast action against what he termed a growing problem.
Congress should oppose opening broadcast spectrum to portable unlicensed devices that would use the so-called “white spaces” in the broadcast spectrum, the National Association of Broadcasters and the Association for Maximum Service TV said Wednesday in a letter to Congress (CD June 20 p6). Earlier, the White Spaces Coalition wrote to the members of Congress touting the merits of using white spaces. Unlicensed spectrum use poses a substantial risk of interference to broadcasts, the broadcast groups said, citing an FCC report. They noted that millions of U.S. households will rely on digital-to-analog converter boxes to get broadcasts over older TV sets, an arrangement that could be disrupted far more severely by interference than ordinary broadcasts. “FCC data indicates that digital television sets will be susceptible to interference from these devices in 80 to 87% of a typical television station’s service area,” the letter said: “Unlike an analog signal where interference will cause a gradual degradation of the picture, interference to a digital signal renders the television unwatchable. And the interference from unlicensed devices will not only affect television sets, but will also interfere with the digital-to-analog converter boxes that are necessary for the DTV transition to succeed.” Unlicensed devices would leave consumers defenseless, the groups said. “The FCC will have no record as to when or where such devices are operating,” the letter said: “Should interference occur, there is no way of determining if the interference is coming from a next door neighbor, a passing car or even within one’s own home.”
Wireline and wireless carriers want the FCC to hold off on decisions about foreign access to and storage of customer proprietary network information (CPNI) until it can build a complete record and consider all concerns. Companies and USTelecom have been at the FCC in recent weeks, reminding the agency that it last sought comments on the issue in 2002. “The record should be refreshed,” a Sprint Nextel spokesman said: “The FCC hasn’t sought industry comment for a couple of years. We wanted to express our views it’s best the commission not act on this particular issue before consider industry comments.”