Top FCC officials said Wed. at the Wireless Communications Assn. (WCA) show in Washington that they expected decisions by early next year on a series of interlocking spectrum issues, including efforts to solve public safety interference at 800 MHz. The outcome of the 800 MHz proceeding has implications for replacement spectrum that Multipoint Distribution Service (MDS) operators seek in the planned reallocation of some MDS spectrum for advanced wireless services.

A Senate Commerce Committee hearing on radio ownership and consolidation Tues. plunged into debate on the circumstances surrounding the country music performers the Dixie Chicks. Committee Chmn. McCain (R-Ariz.) grilled Cumulus Media CEO Lewis Dickey on whether he had ordered the country stations in his chain to stop playing the Dixie Chicks’ music after they made widely publicized criticisms of President Bush. McCain said the incident was a textbook example of concerns about media consolidation.

Change afoot for U.S. $20 bill from greenback look to multihued, hologram- and watermark-embedded replacement is latest instance underscoring concerns that high-quality, low-cost consumer home PC printers are capable of increasingly sophisticated counterfeiting. Fierce competition in inkjet printer market has driven price of digital color copiers down so low, and raised reproduction quality to such high levels, that home machines costing $150 or less now can copy currency, checks, passports and other documents far more accurately than machines costing tens of thousands used in commercial copy services.

The Mich. PSC (MPSC) recommended that the FCC approve SBC’s application to enter the long distance market in that state. In a supplemental report to the Commission issued last week, the MPSC said: “SBC has continued to improve and has met the requirements for long distance authorization.” MPSC Chmn. Laura Chappelle said “all the pieces are now in place for the FCC to grant SBC’s long distance application.”

Support for media ownership limitations continues to mount in the wake of action by the Senate Commerce Committee on legislation that would undo many of the FCC’s June 2 rule changes. Since it was marked up June 19, the bill (S-1046) to restore several media ownership rules has picked up some influential co-sponsors, raising the total of co-sponsors to 38. Senate Minority Leader Daschle (D-S.D.) is the most recent co-sponsor, signing onto the bill by Senate Appropriations Chmn. Stevens (R-Alaska) Fri.

News Corp., GM and Hughes told the FCC that the more than 40 separate conditions proposed by opponents their proposed acquisition deal indicated that “what the commenters fear is not that News Corp. and Hughes will act anticompetitively, but rather that they will compete more efficiently.” In their reply comments, they addressed many of what they called the “parade of horribles that would allegedly result,” citing “vertical foreclosure” as the most common.

In issuing the text of the FCC’s order Wed. changing the rules that govern the nation’s media, Chmn. Powell said that only Congress essentially could ignore the realities of today’s diverse media marketplace and force a return to the old rules. The 257-page order and 56-page addendum and appendixes held few surprises. The FCC release was more about the commissioners themselves and their widely divergent opinions about the state of the nation’s media. Each issued a separate statement reflective of the 3-2 vote on June 2 (CD June 3 p1).

News Corp., GM and Hughes told FCC that more than 40 separate conditions proposed for their acquisition deal indicate that “what the commenters fear is not that News Corp. and Hughes will act anti-competitively, but rather that they will compete more efficiently.”

The U.S. Appeals Court, D.C., sided with the FCC Tues. against a challenge to a decision to open certain rural cellular licenses for auction. Ranger Cellular argued that Sec. 309(l) of the Communications Act, which didn’t allow the Commission to accept new applications for certain commercial radio or TV stations, also covered cellular licenses. That was part of the Balanced Budget Act of 1997, which also included Sec. 309(j), which required the FCC to use competitive bidding and ended its ability to use a lottery system for awarding most spectrum licenses. Ranger had told the court that cellphone service providers were “commercial radio” or TV stations that fell under Sec. 309(l), meaning the Commission couldn’t accept new applications. Ranger had filed applications in the late 1980s to compete in a lottery for certain rural service area cellular licenses. Before the FCC decided how to award those licenses, Congress passed the Balanced Budget Act, which essentially phased out its lottery system. That law stipulated that “competing applications for initial licenses or construction permits for commercial radio or television stations” filed at the FCC before July 1, 1997, should be treated as the only applicants eligible as qualified bidders under that proceeding. The court said that language barred the FCC from accepting new applications for covered “commercial radio” or TV stations. The FCC rejected Ranger arguments that cellphone providers were included in the provision for commercial radio or TV stations and moved forward with an auction in June 2002. The court said the FCC had shown that Sec. 309(l) could be read as covering only broadcast stations. “Although this reading is not the only possible interpretation of Sec. 309(l), it is certainly a reasonable one and therefore commands our deference,” the court said. It also didn’t side with public interest arguments raised by Ranger, including allegations that the Commission had failed to consider factors such as the length of time the original applications had been pending -- 13-14 years. “We think the Commission reasonably applied appropriate factors to the circumstances of the case,” the court said. The case was decided unanimously by the 3-judge panel, which included Chief Judge Douglas Ginsburg and Judges Harry Edwards and Merrick Garland.

The U.S. Appeals Court, D.C., upheld Tues. an FCC order that permitted Verizon to offer long distance service in Pa. Z-Tel had challenged the order, contending that the Commission had erred in finding that Verizon offered nondiscriminatory access to its wholesale billing services. The Telecom Act requires that Bell companies offer access to their local facilities, including billing functions, before being allowed to enter long distance.