FCC Chmn. Martin will have to take a fresh approach to his office and faces much more oversight - from hearings to phone calls and letters from Capitol Hill demanding answers, former FCC Chmn. Reed Hundt said, commenting on the Democratic takeover of Congress.
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 Chmn. Martin hesitates to act on the AT&T-BellSouth merger until he meets with key Democratic members on the Hill to get their views, regulatory sources said Mon. No meeting has occurred, but FCC staff members reportedly made informal contact last week with staffers for incoming House Commerce Committee Chmn. Dingell (D-Mich.) and were assured Dingell isn’t calling for a delay on the merger vote.
Despite 12 years of GOP dominance in Congress and control of the White House since 2001, most of the communications sector’s trade associations and companies won’t be caught completely flat-footed by the Democrats’ reemergence as the party in charge in the House and Senate, sources said.
The FCC is considering lighting requirements -- on existing as well as new towers -- designed to keep birds from flying into communications towers, according to the text of the notice of proposed rulemaking released by the Commission Tues. The NPRM also clarifies that the FCC is considering imposing limits on the use of guy wires by tower companies, since many environmentalists believe those also kill birds.
Cyren Call will be forced to turn to Congress after the FCC rejected its bid for an order reallocating 700 MHz spectrum, now slated to be sold at auction, to a 30 MHz public safety broadband network. In a surprise twist, the FCC’s Public Safety Bureau formally rejected the petition late Fri., just days after the agency put Cyren Call’s petition for rulemaking out for comment. CTIA last week had urged the FCC to immediately dismiss the petition.
The FCC Fri. launched a rulemaking expected to lead to a requirement that celltower operators install white strobe lights to protect migrating birds. A Commission notice of proposed rulemaking seeks guidance on other bird-friendly steps. It also asks more generally how much risk towers pose.
High tech companies and medical device makers want a band for MedRadio to achieve wireless devices’ full potential, they told the FCC. Several parties asked for more spectrum than the 5 MHz expected to be reserved for the devices. Commenters also asked the Commission to tweak the rules to make them as useful as possible.
The FCC dropped the AT&T-BellSouth merger vote from the agenda for today’s meeting, indicating FCC Chmn. Martin is growing less certain of gaining approval. AT&T has indicated talks on merger conditions are at an impasse, sources said. At deadline, with discussions continuing, the FCC’s 2 Democrats said they were seeing progress.
A Wed. order asserting FCC domain over Wi-Fi antennas has implications beyond its locus, a fight between the Mass. Port Authority (Massport) and Continental Airlines over an antenna at Boston’s Logan Airport, commissioners said Wed. The order, passed via electronic vote (CD Oct 23 p11), declares the FCC alone has dominion over such antennas under its over-the-air reception devices (OTARD) rules.
The FCC appears increasingly unlikely to vote Fri. on the AT&T-BellSouth merger, sources said Tues. Meanwhile, sources predicted, if the Commission remains split 2-2, pressure will grow on Comr. McDowell to vote on the merger, something he has so far indicated he’s unwilling to do. Several sources said there appears at this point a less than 1-in-3 chance of an FCC vote Fri.