LightSquared will soon file its own proposal to help define the future for the upper 10 MHz of the L-band, said Executive Vice President Jeff Carlisle during a company press conference on Capitol Hill Wednesday. GPS interests recently filed a request at the FCC for the agency to declare the upper 10 MHz out of bounds for terrestrial services forever (CD Nov 9 p7). LightSquared also said independent testing of newly designed precision GPS filters show that coexistence of GPS and LightSquared’s terrestrial service is possible, and urged the government to begin the required further testing.
Verizon is parting with DirecTV on an LTE test in Pennsylvania, in one of the first signs of fallout from Verizon’s proposed $3.6 billion purchase of Spectrum Co.’s AWS licenses, Verizon officials confirmed Wednesday at the UBS investors conference in New York. Comcast, Time Warner Cable and Bright House Networks last week agreed to sell 122 AWS licenses in the 1700/2100 MHz band (CD Dec 6 p5) to Verizon covering 259 million POPs and potentially setting the stage for freeing wireless spectrum that has been “warehoused,” Verizon CEO Lowell McAdam said.
AT&T asked the FCC to increase the amount of spectrum used for its screen of the proposed Qualcomm deal, the company’s initial application shows. AT&T has cried foul about the changed spectrum screen standards in the review of its proposed takeover of T-Mobile, but the company itself urged the commission to expand the standards and appeared to at least acknowledge tacitly that the FCC had the authority to change the screen standards, its Qualcomm application shows. “If the FCC were to revise its screen to include all spectrum available for mobile wireless services, it is clear that there are no areas where this transaction would require further analysis to conclude that no competitive harms were likely,” the company said on page 21 of its Qualcomm application.
Media companies attacked the “scarcity doctrine” of broadcast media regulation in petitions for certiorari filed with the U.S. Supreme Court this week. The companies are seeking to overturn several media ownership limits, including a ban on owning newspapers and broadcast assets in the same market and consolidating radio and TV licenses in a single market, in asking the court to hear an appeal of a 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, Philadelphia, decision remanding to the FCC some rule changes that would have relaxed ownership restrictions (CD Aug 24 p3). Meanwhile, a petition for certiorari from the NAB avoided mentioning the scarcity doctrine but asked the high court to take the case because of a split among lower courts on the ownership rules.
The Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission appealed the FCC’s order on Universal Service Fund and intercarrier compensation at the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Philadelphia. Another appeal from NASUCA is coming, the group’s executive director, Charles Acquard, told us. More appeals might be coming from states, analysts said. The FCC looks forward to “vigorously defending” in court its “unanimous, balanced” USF and ICC reforms, an agency official said.
Sen. Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., will seek middle ground with the House on spectrum legislation, including reducing his proposal for funding a national public safety network, Rockefeller told reporters Tuesday after Democrats’ weekly policy lunch. The House-proposed figure of $6.5 billion comes “close” to what’s needed for the network, but $7 billion or $7.5 billion would be “a whole lot better,” the Senate Commerce Committee chairman said. The extra money could make the difference on whether the network gets built, Rockefeller said.
The FCC’s Enforcement Bureau opened investigations into allegations that Lifeline carriers aren’t properly checking whether their customers are eligible to receive the subsidy, the commission said Monday in an enforcement advisory (http://xrl.us/bmkcfs). “We are actively investigating these allegations, and issue this Enforcement Advisory to alert Lifeline service providers that they face stiff penalties, potentially including revocation of their [eligible telecommunications carrier service] status or their section 214 authorization to operate as carriers, if they do not strictly adhere to the Commission’s rules,” the FCC said.
The growth of digital content delivery is opening up huge opportunities for Sony and other companies, but “we have to add value to ownership” of that content for consumers, Robert Wiesenthal, executive vice president and chief financial officer of Sony Corporation of America told the UBS investors conference in New York Tuesday. That’s “a challenge,” he said.
The FCC has a chance to clear the way for foreign investment in U.S. satellite and other communications companies by eliminating unnecessary licensing barriers, said satellite interests in filings at the FCC in docket 11-133. The FCC issued a proposed rulemaking in August on potential changes to foreign ownership rules and the licensing requirements of section 310(b)(4) of the Communications Act (CD Aug 10 p11).
CBS’ retransmission revenue will hit $250 million by late 2012 and increase “every year in the future” as the network cashes in on its top-rated programming, CEO Leslie Moonves said Tuesday at the UBS conference in New York.