Small and mid-sized cable operators are watching how the FCC develops Connect America Fund Phase II before deciding whether to bid for federal funds to expand broadband networks to unserved rural areas, industry officials told us. They said the Phase II CAF cost model, on which the FCC held a workshop earlier this month (CD Sept 14 p3), is one element that could prompt cable operators to compete for the funding. But plans haven’t been firmed up, and none may come to fruition on the part of cable operators, industry officials said.
The FCC on Friday approved a notice of proposed rulemaking that will establish rules for an incentive auction of broadcast spectrum for wireless broadband, to take place as early as 2014. The NPRM moves the FCC a step closer to what is already the most anticipated auction since the 700 MHz auction four years ago. Commissioner Ajit Pai concurred only on parts of the NPRM, saying the commission leaves too many critical questions unasked.
FCC names to Federal-State Joint Conference on Advanced Services: Swati Dandekar, Iowa Utilities Board; and Stephen Michael Bloom, Oregon Public Utility Commission; filling vacancies created by departure of Robert Clayton, ex-Missouri Public Service Commission; and Vendean Vafiades, ex-Maine Public Utilities Commission … Lobbyist registrations: Mobile TeleSystems Bermuda, Williams and Jensen, effective Aug. 7 … Cisco, Gronberg Consulting, effective Aug. 10 … Pandora Media, Constantine Cannon, effective Aug. 17 … Inflight Passenger Communication Coalition, Biersack Government Relations Team, effective Sept. 3. … Tim Unwin, Commonwealth Telecommunication Organisation, added to ITU International Multilateral Partnership Against Cyber Threats’ International Advisory Board … Anton Monk, Entropic Communications, appointed to RVU Alliance board.
LAS VEGAS -- T-Mobile is taking a long, hard look at how it could make sharing work in the 1755-1850 MHz band, T-Mobile Senior Vice President Tom Sugrue said on a Competitive Carrier Association convention panel Monday. Carriers as a whole have pressed the government to make the band available on a licensed basis. T-Mobile received special temporary authority from the FCC to test sharing with federal users and Sugrue said the carrier believes sharing could work, at least in the short term.
Broadband ISPs excoriated the FCC for adopting unrealistic standards for its Section 706 report on the state of broadband deployment, in comments filed Thursday and Friday in docket 12-228. In response to a notice of inquiry asking what factors the commission should consider for its ninth report (http://xrl.us/bnqtzn), the telcos and cable companies aired some longstanding grievances about the commission’s findings the last three years that broadband was not being deployed on a “reasonable and timely fashion” (CD Aug 22 p1). States spoke of the need for the commission to tweak its USF rules to enable faster deployment of broadband, and interest groups expressed a need for a faster definition of broadband to enable more data-hungry applications.
Tampa experienced the start of “the first demonstrated multi-vendor interoperable Public Safety Long Term Evolution (LTE) network during the Republican National Convention,” Cisco said Monday. The RNC occurred from Aug. 27 to 30. Cisco credited its work with Raytheon, Nokia Siemens Networks, Reality Mobile and Amdocs. “The multi-vendor LTE network was implemented in coordination with the law enforcement agencies supporting the Convention, a National Special Security Event (NSSE),” Cisco said (http://xrl.us/bnp6ud). “The system marks the first time federal, state and local first responders have simultaneously used a 700 MHz D-block broadband network for an NSSE. The network was deployed under special temporary authority (STA) from the Federal Communications Commission for the Convention” and provided a field trial of a multi-vendor integrated LTE system in advance of the $7 billion deployment of the National Public Safety Broadband Network” (CD July 2 p11). The future of this public safety network is “still being determined” but the commercial off-the-shelf devices and system applications are now “local assets,” Cisco said.
Neutrality in local number portability administration is crucial to ensure the integrity of the porting process, telecom officials agreed in documents posted Friday in response to the FCC’s request for comment on the procurement documents submitted for the LNP database platforms and services. Most commenters encouraged quick approval of the documents submitted by the North American Portability Management’s “Future of Number Portability Administration Center Subcommittee” (FoNPAC). But Comcast asked for a revision to enable more competition on the regional level, and Telcordia Technologies said it wanted more guidance on how the neutrality provisions would be applied.
Government agencies don’t distribute emergency alert system warnings to radio listeners and viewers of over-the-air and pay TV only via the Internet, state and federal originators of EAS alerts and industry executives said. During Hurricane Isaac, the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s new Web-based EAS distribution system wasn’t used by agencies serving the Gulf Coast that responded to our survey. Instead, the traditional method of distributing storm and disaster alerts by broadcasting them to all radio and TV stations and multichannel video programming distributors in a region was used late last month, as it continues to be.
Verizon demonstrated a “lack of understanding of Sprint’s network modernization effort” when it argued that the carrier’s awarding wireless backhaul contracts to providers other than Verizon shows the competitiveness of the special access market, a Sprint Nextel spokesman told us. Verizon in a letter to the FCC Wednesday said that Sprint’s Network Vision modernization plan, which moves its wireless backhaul away from TDM-based services toward next-generation higher capacity services, awarded relatively few contracts to Verizon (http://xrl.us/bnpncf). Verizon’s argument (CD Sept 13 p6) also shows “a lack of understanding of what the Federal Communications Commission is investigating in the special access proceeding,” the spokesman said. “While Sprint is investing billions of dollars through its Network Vision program to purchase new high capacity lines and significant network infrastructure, the company will continue to rely upon and purchase -- as does a majority of broadband customers -- the DS-1 and DS-3 circuits that are at the core of the FCC’s investigation. These circuits are not a part of Sprint’s Network Vision program,” Sprint said. “Unless the FCC acts to fix the broken special access market, Sprint will continue to be forced to purchase these special access circuits from Verizon and other incumbent local exchange carriers who typically earn rates of return which exceed more than 100 percent on average,” the spokesman said. “If Verizon believes these outrageous rates are evidence of competition, they should explicitly say so in the docket, rather than distort the facts and the context of Sprint’s network improvement program and the Commission’s investigation.” It’s “significant” that Verizon got so few of the contracts, because it indicates the widespread availability of competition across the map, not just in a few high-density areas, said Anna-Maria Kovacs, visiting senior policy scholar at Georgetown University’s Center for Business and Public Policy. She referenced a presentation by Adeel Siddiqui, Sprint’s backhaul development manager, that stated it’s moving to a combination of fiber and microwave, and plans to use several dozen alternate access providers. T-Mobile has made similar comments about its network, Kovacs said. “There is no question that within about a year, wireless carriers will have abandoned traditional TDM-based special access in favor of Ethernet and will select among dozens of providers.”
Verizon is completing power audits of all facilities, a review expected to conclude in the Washington region by the end of October and nationwide by March, Senior Vice President Kyle Malady told House lawmakers Wednesday. The telco will have better monitoring equipment in place by 2013, he said. Verizon understands the need to communicate better with public safety answering points and the public during disasters, he said. The Subcommittee on Emergency Preparedness, Response and Communications held the hearing on the challenges and future of resilient communications, which emphasized the problems of Verizon as well as the new technologies emergency responders are facing. Its prime focus was Verizon’s June 29 failure to maintain power in Northern Virginia during the derecho wind storms and subsequent 911 outages.