The future of the 1755-1780 MHz band remains uncertain, almost half a year after NTIA wrapped up a report on the band. The band is carriers’ top priority for reallocation for wireless broadband. Congress left language out of recently enacted spectrum legislation that would have required reallocating the 1755-1780 MHz band for auction, following pressure from the Defense Department (CD Feb 21 p4). NTIA remains evasive about the band in a document slated to be presented to the Commerce Spectrum Management Advisory Committee (CSMAC) Thursday. A spokesman said Wednesday the report is set to be released in coming weeks.
SAN FRANCISCO -- The chances that Congress will pass some sort of cybersecurity legislation have improved in recent months, Howard Schmidt, the White House cybersecurity coordinator and special assistant to the president, said Tuesday. “Hopefully we'll see something before the summer break and it gets into the election season,” he said. If legislation can focus on consensus items and leave longer-term debates for another day, the prospects seem good, he said. “I think there are better chances now than we've ever had before,” he said. He spoke on a panel on international cybersecurity at the German American Business Association and Goethe Institut.
The quest to solve the spectrum crunch is far from over, said panelists at an Institute for Policy Innovation conference Wednesday. The success of the wireless industry, with new technologies and more efficient spectrum usage, is “far from final,” said CTIA President Steve Largent. U.S. carriers will need more spectrum, and competition in the industry is needed to keep up with innovation and usage levels, meet consumer needs and for the country to remain a global wireless leader, he said.
If Republicans gain control of the Senate, free-market hero Jim DeMint could lead the Senate Commerce Committee after the unexpected announcement Tuesday that Sen. Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, will not seek re-election (CD Feb 29 p14). DeMint, a Republican senator from South Carolina and the ranking member of the Communications Subcommittee, is next in line by seniority to replace retiring Ranking Member Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas. DeMint is a staunch conservative and tea party favorite who marks a sharp contrast to the moderate Snowe.
New Hampshire will see more legislation challenging telephone pole taxes, said Rep. John Burt (R-Hillsborough), who sponsored recently defeated HB-1305. The bill would have exempted phone companies from paying property taxes on the poles and initiated a study of how state utilities are taxed. The bill was defeated 161-133. The tax, which Burt called a “back door attempt to get more money,” stands.
The American broadband industry is dominated by large cable providers who, having geographically divided the country and facing no real competition or government oversight, dictate the terms of access -- to the detriment of “basic quality of life in America,” said Harvard Law Visiting Professor Susan Crawford. But participants in a BroadbandUS.TV panel Tuesday disagreed, and said the future of high-speed access will be an infrastructure that blends wireline and wireless access and makes use of freed-up spectrum. Crawford was formerly an Obama White House official.
The FCC said it will deliver documents on LightSquared to the House Commerce Committee. In letters Tuesday to the commission and other government bodies, the committee’s top Republicans requested “all written and electronic communications from April 2009 to present between any individual associated with LightSquared, Harbinger Capital Partners, SkyTerra Communications, GPS manufacturers, and [the Space-Based Positioning Navigation and Timing Executive Committee (PNT ExCom)] regarding the process used to evaluate the proposed spectrum license transfer, testing, and potential interference.” House Commerce wants a response by March 13.
The author of the Senate cybersecurity bill, Sen. Joe Lieberman, I-Conn., told us Tuesday he “was open” to giving the National Security Agency more authority to monitor U.S. networks for cybersecurity threats. “I gather from the articles I've seen that the proposal was for the NSA to do this in cooperation with the Department of Homeland Security, which is the model that we've created in the bill. My mind is open to it."
New numbers compiled by UBS show what could be a troublesome trend for the FCC, with Verizon Wireless and AT&T continuing strong subscriber growth, as Sprint Nextel and T-Mobile fall further behind. The numbers, gathered from the most recent company reports, come as the FCC prepares the 2012 version of the Wireless Competition Report. The agency is also likely to consider rules that could potentially limit Verizon and AT&T participation in upcoming spectrum auctions, including the eventual voluntary incentive auction of broadcast spectrum.
Getting more spectrum is MetroPCS’s “number one priority,” but the company is hopeful the FCC will make more available starting this year, Chief Financial Officer Braxton Carter said Tuesday at the Deutsche Bank conference. “We believe that incentive auctions will be a reality,” he said. “One of the issues is that’s going to take a little longer to develop and the timeline on that is not particularly optimal."