Bush Administration Tues. released long-awaited 3G viability assessment under which Defense Dept. agreed to clear most of 1710-1755 MHz but said freeing additional 15 MHz beyond that was untenable between now and 2008. Result is that report finds way to clear 90 MHz of spectrum for advanced wireless services at 1.7 GHz and in 45 MHz of 2110- 2170 MHz, which is occupied by nongovt. users. That’s less than 120 MHz that NTIA and other Executive Branch agencies had left on table last fall for 3G evaluation, after taking 1770-1850 MHz occupied by DoD out of consideration following Sept. 11 attacks (CD Oct 9 p3). While spectrum is less than originally sought by industry, private sector and govt. officials at Commerce Dept. briefing touted outcome as providing certainty that allocation decisions and auction could be held in 2004-2005 time frame. Also Tues., Commerce Dept. released draft bill to create spectrum relocation fund to pay incumbent govt. users for relocating and modernizing equipment. Commerce Secy. Donald Evans said 3G assessment strikes “a necessary balance between our country’s economic growth and national security, as well as public safety.”

WorldCom made largest Chapter 11 filing in U.S. history late Sun., leading FCC Chmn. Powell to issue statement providing reassurances that his agency didn’t believe action would “lead to an immediate disruption of service to consumers or threaten the operation of WorldCom’s Internet backbone facilities.” FCC Deputy Gen. Counsel John Rogovin filed appearance Mon. at U.S. Bankruptcy Court, N.Y., action characterized by spokeswoman as assuring that Commission was official party in proceeding. She said Rogovin’s role would be to make judge aware, during bankruptcy proceeding, of importance of continued service to customers, including federal govt., and need to protect universal service funding, wireless licenses and Internet. Justice Dept. (DoJ) also took action, filing motion requesting independent examiner be appointed to investigate company’s financial affairs.

Members of Emergency Services Interconnection Forum (ESIF) on Fri. touted technical solution designed to stem increasing problem of crank or harassing 911 calls fielded by public safety answering points (PSAPs) from 911-only phones. FCC in April issued order requiring wireless carriers to use new code to alert PSAPs when 911 calls was made from handset that lacked callback capability, known as nonservice initialized phone. Typically, carriers assign dialable number to handset after customer signs service contract. Noninitialized phones, including 911-only units donated to domestic abuse programs, lack that number for PSAPs to call back for more information when 911 is dialed. Order requires carriers to program noninitialized phones with 123-456-7890 as “phone number” that will be used to notify PSAP that emergency call is coming from phone without callback capability. ESIF has been working on what it believes to be better solution than 123-456-7890 system set out by FCC, said Robert Gojanovich, manager of 911 service for Verizon and leader of ESIF study group on issue. Main strength of ESIF solution is ability to uniquely identify handset making call and help to pinpoint repeat callers, for isolating cases of harassment and highlighting legitimate calls that come in more than once, Gojanovich said in Fri. conference call sponsored by Alliance for Telecom Industry Solutions. In areas where Enhanced 911 Phase 1 or 2 isn’t yet in place, 911 calls can be made anonymously, particularly on phones that don’t have callback capability, Gojanovich said. National Emergency Number Assn. and Assn. of Public-Safety Communications Officials have been tracking problem, he said. “We are hearing more and more stories where hundreds of calls are placed from a person or handset into a 911 center,” he said. For TDMA and CDMA networks, solution on which public safety and industry have been working would transmit “911” in place of area code and last 7 digits of electronic serial number (ESN) of handset to PSAP, Gojanovich said. Equivalent to ESN also could be used for GSM networks, he said. Among benefits of that system is that information on handsets making bogus 911 calls could be used to prosecute offenders, he said. Wireless carrier network will capture that number, for example, and it can be printed out at PSAP as it’s received, he said. Once Phase 2 of E911 is more widely in place to provide location information on wireless callers, that information could be used to locate caller.

Apple, Cisco Systems, Intel and Microsoft urged FCC to submit proposal to World Radio Conference (WRC) 2003 backing allocation of certain 5 GHz bands for broadband access using wireless LANs while protecting existing services. How 5 GHz spectrum policy will play out at WRC has become point of debate, with questions raised such as whether wireless LANs should have primary or secondary use of band if spectrum were globally harmonized. NTIA has been among those raising interference concerns in WRC planning. Globalstar and ICO Global Communications also have objected to any policy that would grant wireless LANs primary access to spectrum at 5 GHz and amateur radio community has raised concerns about impact on their existing allocation at 5650-5670 MHz. In comments last week on policy positions under development in FCC’s advisory committee for WRC 2003, Microsoft and fellow commenters stressed 5 GHz would become increasingly important for unlicensed spectrum use as 2.4 GHz band became more congested. “The 5 GHz frequencies are ideal for faster, better wireless broadband access in the near term, and perhaps whole new networks in the long term,” filing said. “In addition, the development of 5 GHz WLAN networks may provide important national security benefits to homeland defense, to public safety agencies and even to the development of battlefield networks.” Some experts view 5 GHz wireless LANs as useful for mesh networks in which each device can operate as hub in distributed network scenario, filing said. “Thus, even in a catastrophic emergency networks could continue operating -- providing both security and relief teams ready-made, operational broadband networks,” filing said. Technology companies said those networks could be programmed to provide priority access to security personnel and emergency workers. Accommodations would need to be made under international allocation for existing federal users who operated radar and space research and earth exploration satellite systems, companies said. Apple, Cisco, Intel and Microsoft said “they and other members of the private sector interested in the success of wireless networking are working intensely with existing federal spectrum users to develop an equitable U.S. proposal that would accommodate all interests.”

FCC filed opposition in U.S. Appeals Court, D.C., Thurs. to petition by Central Wyo. College (CWC) and Idaho State Board of Education (SBE) that sought exemption from auction of lower band 700 MHz licenses because they were noncommercial educational (NCE) broadcasters. Last month, D.C. Circuit turned down request by CWC and SBE for emergency stay of auction for licenses at issue in their petition. Those 2 agencies, which operate public TV stations, have said they should have access to spectrum without having to undergo competitive bidding in light of National Public Radio v. FCC decision of D.C. Circuit last year. SBE cited 2001 D.C. Circuit ruling that denial of auction authority to FCC was based on noncommercial educational attributes of station that would receive license and not where it operated in spectrum. After 2 agencies filed petition in D.C. Circuit, FCC issued order that concluded noncommercial educational broadcasters weren’t eligible to apply for initial licenses in lower 700 MHz band. “Because the Commission has excluded NCEs from eligibility to apply for initial licenses in the lower 700 MHz band, petitioners’ request that the FCC exempt them from participating in the auction for such licenses is moot,” Commission told court in latest filing. FCC said in order rejecting NCE applications for lower 700 MHz auction that allowing such licensees to apply for spectrum in band would create uncertainty about what licenses would be available for auction. As for being moot, Commission argued that petition by CWC and SBE was filed in D.C. Circuit before FCC released lower 700 MHz order that held that such applications weren’t eligible to apply for initial licenses in that band. Because those agencies aren’t eligible to apply for these licenses, question whether auction exemption for certain licenses in Sec. 309(j) of Communications Act would apply was “simply academic,” agency said.

National Emergency Number Assn. (NENA) told FCC this week that several “open issues” on role that LECs played in supplying 911 services to public safety authorities could slow wireless Enhanced 911 rollout. NENA cited issues such as: (1) How LECs recover costs of 911 services supplied to public safety answering points (PSAPs). (2) Extent to which LECs are authorized to offer E911 Phase 2 refinements of such services. (3) “Regulatory interface” between FCC authority over wireless 911 implementation and state PUC authority over rates, terms and conditions of LEC intrastate service. “NENA representatives expressed concern that these and other open issues threatened to slow the pace of wireless E911 implementation,” group said in ex parte filing Tues. Filing said “wireless E911 cannot become ubiquitous until the wire facilities essential to its offering, such as selective routing switches, are available throughout the country.” NENA plans to develop proposal for early fall on how to make wireline network infrastructure more available for providing wireless E911 to less populated areas. LEC-related 911 issue is among those under examination as part of FCC technical inquiry led by former Office of Engineering & Technology Chief Dale Hatfield on E911 implementation issues. Wireless carriers, in some cases, have contended they have had difficulty obtaining necessary LEC facility upgrades for E911 Phase 1 deployment and fear issue also could emerge under Phase 2 rollouts. Wireless carriers such as Sprint PCS have stressed role of LECs in closing E911 connection among wireless subscribers, carriers, databases and public safety answering points. NENA said it had requests pending at FCC for clarification of identification of nonservice initialized phones, which include phones donated to domestic abuse programs. While requests cover how to treat harassing calls from such phones, “the issue also extends to the matter of ‘congestion control’ when, for example, large numbers of wireless calls to 911 report the same emergent incident at the same time.” NENA also expressed concern that development of wireless location technology for E911 called Enhanced Observed Time Difference (E-OTD) equipment for GSM networks “seemed to have stalled.” It said “predictions for its superior accuracy, relative to network location solutions, had retrenched.” Group said: “At some point, the holders of GSM Phase 2 waivers must be called on their promises to look at alternative location solutions if their initial E-OTD choice is not viable under the applicable waiver deadlines.”

Govt. Emergency Telecom Service (GETS) and Wireless Priority Service (WPS) would be upgraded under sole-source contract that Dept. of Defense (DoD) said it intended to award to DynCorp Information Systems. DoD said National Communications System faced pressing need for “new or modified GETS features and WPS enhancements” as carriers deployed next-generation wireline network and 3G wireless equipment. GETS and WPS provide emergency access and priority processing of voice and data transmissions by authorized users in national or regional crises. Services increase probability that public switched telephone network congestion wouldn’t impair ability of national security and emergency preparedness workers to communicate. DoD said that although changes in system wouldn’t guarantee completion of priority calls, neither would upgrades preempt calls in progress. Anticipated length of contract is 60 months. Estimated contract value wasn’t disclosed.

Public safety groups and Motorola urged FCC to adopt channelization plan that could accommodate 802.11 technologies in part of 4.9 GHz recently allocated to public safety operations. But several commenters on proposal that would clear way for high-speed digital technologies for emergency communications in band differed on who should be eligible to use that spectrum beyond “traditional” public safety entities. Representing critical infrastructure providers such as utilities, United Telecom Council (UTC) said FCC should adopt eligibility definition that would include entities such as pipelines and railroads that coordinate with public safety during emergencies. However, Assn. of Public-Safety Communications Officials (APCO) backed narrower definition that would prevent fire, police and emergency medical entities from having to compete with others for that spectrum. One point of agreement across broad range of comments was that 50 MHz allocation in further notice approved by FCC in Feb. was important for homeland security, but still fell far short of spectrum needed for public safety operations.

Amendment to homeland security bill (HR-5005) that would have removed state and local matching requirements for counterterrorism equipment and training grants was rejected by the House Science Committee Wed. Amendment by Rep. Larson (D-Conn.) would have exempted fire departments and other emergency service providers from contributing equivalent of 30% of grant funds received. Larson said money could be used for functions including interoperability of first responder communications equipment. Although Committee Chmn. Sherwood Boehlert (R-N.Y.) and others said measure was well- intentioned, he said it would be counterproductive and successfully urged members to reject it. It narrowly failed, 15-17, while manager’s amendment to HR-5005 by Boehlert and ranking Democrat Hall (Tex.) passed by voice vote.

When granting additional flexibility for spectrum use, several wireless carriers and equipment makers urged FCC this week not to change rules in “midstream” for incumbent licensees that already had paid billions for licenses. Wireless and satellite companies, new technology developers, broadcasters and public interest groups filed close to 200 comments on questions from agency’s Spectrum Policy Task Force. Relatively high number of comments poured into Commission despite Office of Engineering & Technology’s refusal of several requests to provide extension of July 8 deadline. Public notice last month raised policy questions ranging from potential need to redefine harmful interference to whether rural spectrum should be covered under policy different from urban areas (CD June 7 p1). Some developers of emerging technologies stressed need for FCC to provide clarity in its Part 15 rules for unlicensed devices and to furnish more spectrum as demands increased. Several large carriers, including Sprint and Cingular, urged FCC to keep intact auctions of exclusive allocations and said market- based tools such as auctions worked only if license-holders had clearly defined rights.