Starting Friday, the FCC plans eight bidding rounds per day in the AWS-3 auction, up from six, the agency said in a Thursday announcement. The FCC speeds up auctions as they continue. On the opening day, Nov. 13, the FCC had only three bidding rounds. The FCC also said bidders will get a holiday break. Bidding in the auction will be suspended after the last round of the day on Tuesday and won’t restart until Jan. 5. The auction took a four-day break over the Thanksgiving holiday.
The FCC is fully committed to “closing the gap” in wireless indoor location accuracy, FCC Public Safety Bureau Chief David Simpson said in a blog post. The issue is “one of the highest-priority” items at the FCC, he said. Simpson said the agency is looking closely at the industry road map, agreed to by the four major carriers, APCO and the National Emergency Number Association. “The commitments made in the Roadmap reflect hard work by all the parties to improve public safety outcomes and establish a timeline for implementation,” Simpson said. But some in the public safety community are critical of the plan, he said: “They have concerns regarding the pace of achievement, measures of effectiveness, and accountability for results. These parties have urged the Commission to reject the Roadmap and adopt its original proposal.” The road map has been controversial, with numerous public safety groups objecting (see 1412150061). A divided FCC approved an NPRM proposing a different set of rules in February (see 1402210038).
The FCC is seeking comment on draft recommendations approved for the 2015 World Radiocommunication Conference (WRC-15). It also is seeking comment on the draft proposals provided to the FCC by the NTIA, and on the International Bureau’s initial conclusions regarding the WRC-15 Advisory Committee draft recommendations, the bureau said Thursday in a public notice. Comments are due Jan. 16, it said. The bureau said it concluded that it can generally support most of the draft recommendations.
The FCC Enforcement Bureau said it's dropping a Notice of Apparent Liability (NAL) for Forfeiture against Sandhill Communications for allegedly violating FCC hearing aid-compatible handset rules. The bureau had proposed a $15,000 fine against the company for failing to offer the requisite number of handsets in 2009. “Based on our review of the record, including Sandhill’s NAL Response, we find that Sandhill apparently complied with the hearing aid-compatible handset deployment requirements during the 2009 reporting period,” the bureau said Thursday, following an investigation. “Thus, we find that no forfeiture penalty should be imposed.”
The National Public Safety Telecommunications Council asked the FCC to make some changes to its Part 22 rules, in a filing responding to an October public notice from the Wireless Bureau. NPSTC, which represents public safety groups, said many have deployed Part 22 channels as a supplement to land mobile radio spectrum in areas where insufficient Part 90 channels are available. “NPSTC recommends the Commission open a rulemaking to address several key areas that would help enable such secondary market access and use of Part 22 channels for public safety and business critical operations,” the group said. Among the changes NPSTC sought is a broader emission bandwidth to be allowed under Part 22. NPSTC also urged the FCC to find that mobile, portable and fixed infrastructure transmitters certified under Part 90 of the rules can be used on Part 22 channels “on a routine basis.” Comments were due on the notice Wednesday in docket 14-180.
The full FCC let stand an order from the Wireless Bureau denying a license renewal hearing sought by Lawrence Behr about a 220 MHz license for Denver he won in an FCC lottery in 1993. Behr had filed an application for review in June 2009. The commission order examines the lengthy history of the case. “In sum, because Behr did not meet the respective deadlines for filing a petition for reconsideration or an application for review of the Waiver Denial Letter (both December 12, 2003) -- and because this case presents no circumstances, extraordinary or otherwise, that call into question the propriety of giving force to these deadlines -- we deny Behr’s request in the present Application ... and, accordingly, we let that letter order stand,” the FCC said.
FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler doesn’t appear to understand how wireless carriers have long been regulated, said Fred Campbell, director of the Center for Boundless Innovation in Technology, Tuesday in a blog post. Campbell, Wireless Bureau chief under Republican Chairman Kevin Martin, cited remarks by Wheeler at last week’s FCC meeting. Wheeler said reclassifying broadband under Communications Act Title II would subject major carriers to the same rules they have lived under for 20 years, Campbell said. “Hint: It looks a lot more like case-by-case review under section 706 than ‘strong’ net neutrality rules under Title II,” he said. “Though mobile voice services are subject to the Title II ‘reasonableness’ obligations" in sections 201 and 202 of the Communications Act, "the FCC has not established per se rules to ensure that wireless carriers meet those obligations,” Campbell said. “The FCC generally relies on market forces to protect wireless consumers from unreasonable rates and unreasonable discrimination subject to a case-by-case complaint process to address potential market failures.”
Sprint will launch the Lumia 635 smartphone through its no-contract Boost Mobile and Virgin Mobile prepaid services Dec. 23, marking the first time Windows Phone 8.1 smartphones will be available from the Sprint carrier family. The phone will be available Jan. 16 to Sprint postpaid customers with pricing to be announced later, Sprint said. Boost Mobile plans start at $35 a month for unlimited voice and text and 1 GB of data, the company said. Virgin Mobile plans start at $20 month for 300 voice minutes, unlimited text and Wi-Fi-only data access, Sprint said.
Bidding in the FCC’s AWS-3 auction was at $44.14 billion after 103 bidding rounds Tuesday. With bidding slowing, the FCC moved to Stage Three of the auction after bidding round 97. That means a bidder must be active on at least 98 percent of its current bidding eligibility in each round, the FCC explained. “If a bidder's provisionally winning bids do not satisfy the required activity level and the bidder does not place any additional bids, the FCC Auction System will automatically apply an activity rule waiver on the bidder's behalf.” The change could limit or eliminate a bidder’s ability to place additional bids in the auction. The last major FCC auction, the 700 MHz auction in 2008, lasted 38 bidding days and 261 rounds.
Coral Wireless asked the FCC to overturn a decision by the Internal Audit Division of the Universal Service Administrative Company to recover universal service support from Coral based on a finding that a certain number of the reported lines were not revenue producing. The carrier reported on a series of meetings at the FCC in filings in docket 05-337, posted by the FCC Monday. The Wireline Bureau rejected Coral’s arguments. Coral could not have been providing telecom services with the lines at issue “because Coral's terms and conditions permitted, but did not require,” Coral to reroute nonemergency calls to Coral's customer care center during the 60-day period preceding disconnection for non-payment, the filing said. The ruling could create “unintended harm,” Coral said. “Unless the Order is reversed, any service provider will be able to evade regulation as a common carrier merely by including in its terms and conditions a provision that gives the provider the right, but not the obligation, to route calls to locations other than the dialed telephone number.”