The FCC’s proposal to allocate more spectrum to wireless broadband has broad support and could face an easier time politically than most key communications issues before Congress and the FCC, Qualcomm Vice President Dean Brenner said Tuesday at an Information Technology & Innovation Foundation conference. The commission’s National Broadband Plan recommended that 500 MHz of additional spectrum be allocated for wireless broadband within 10 years.
The FCC got generally high marks for the National Broadband Plan and its creation of the first national spectrum target for broadband -- 500 MHz of new allocations in the next 10 years -- during a panel late Wednesday. Chairman Julius Genachowski has taken criticism for the FCC’s slow pace in carrying out the plan (CD Sept 1 p1). Speakers at a wireless conference sponsored by Silicon Flatirons in Boulder, Colo., said making decisions will be much harder than producing the rulemaking and inquiry notices that the commission has put out.
Motorola and Garmin counseled the FCC to act with caution if it changes the rules for Part 95 Personal Radio Services (PRS) devices, the topic of a June 7 rulemaking notice. The gear covered includes walkie-talkie radios, hobbyists’ remote-control airplanes, devices for people with hearing problems, medical-telemetry devices and gear used by law enforcement to track people and property. In the notice, the FCC said the use of PRS has expanded well beyond its original use for “short distance, simplex, mobile voice communications and radio control used by hobbyists for model aircraft” and rules changes may be in order. Some rule changes make sense, like allowing General Mobile Radio Service radios to transmit GPS and text message data over the service’s channels, Garmin said. “Garmin has been providing devices with GPS capability for nearly six years pursuant to a waiver granted by the Commission,” the company said. “Based on the experience of the more than 500,000 users who have purchased such devices to date, these public interest benefits are achievable without any danger of interference to other services or any public interest harm.” Other changes are more troubling, the company said. It opposed a proposal that the commission reduce the power level for portable and handheld GMRS radios to 2 watts effective radiated power from five. Garmin said its 5-watt Rino radios are popular with federal, state and local law enforcement. “The proposed limit would substantially reduce the quality and range of GMRS service, compared to that provided by the five-watt devices that are being marketed and demanded by users today,” the company said. “Communications made at two watts would be considerably less clear and reliable -- an important consideration when those transmissions often include information that could save a life.” Garmin also opposed a proposal to introduce narrowbanding to the GMRS channels. “The proposal would result in significantly diminished transmission quality compared to the clear and robust transmissions attainable with the current 25 kHz spacing and its associated 20 kHz authorized bandwidth,” the company said. Motorola said, “Existing users have made significant investments in Part 95 equipment and have integrated Personal Radio Services into their professional and personal communications activities. The Commission should therefore move cautiously in amending rules that may alter the fundamental characteristics of these services."
The FCC should reject any calls to impose rules on wireless carriers that would restrict their “operational flexibility” to make their networks more able to withstand disaster, CTIA said in reply comments on an FCC notice of inquiry on the effects on broadband communications networks of damage to or failure of network equipment or severe overload. “Although a small minority of commenters purports to identify weaknesses in the reliability of wireless networks, in each case these assertions do not withstand scrutiny,” CTIA said in a filing Friday. “Wireless network operators go to great lengths to harden their networks and have made huge investments to develop and implement emergency response procedures.” The record shows carriers “have gone to great lengths to implement robust network architectures that include redundancy, overload protection, and survivability, without the need for government regulation,” CTIA said. Federal mandates haven’t worked in the past, the group said. CTIA cited as an example a backup power rule for cell sites, mandated by the FCC after Hurricane Katrina, later reversed by the commission after the requirements proved unworkable and were challenged by carriers in federal court. “In short, the adoption of prescriptive regulation could actually harm network reliability by limiting carriers’ abilities to implement innovative solutions that take into consideration the unique aspects not only of an individual carrier … but also the unique aspects of individual markets within a carrier’s footprint (e.g., floodplains, hurricane belts, tornado alleys) that likely will require different approaches to addressing disaster recovery.”
Washington’s Utilities and Transportation Commission seeks comment on an update of a “concept paper” proposing how the state should restructure its universal service fund, the commission said Thursday. The extensive document, submitted Wednesday by the Washington Independent Telecommunications Association, reflects revisions to a July proposal and goes into significant detail in recommendations. The commission tentatively set Oct. 4 for a third workshop on the document and related matters. Comments are due Sept. 17.
The FCC Wireline and Wireless bureaus sought more comment in the net neutrality proceeding Wednesday. That effectively kicks key decisions on that and broadband reclassification back until after the November elections, said many agency and industry officials. Odds had already appeared slim that Chairman Julius Genachowski would circulate an order on his proposed “third way” reclassification plan Thursday, for a vote at the Sept. 23 open meeting. The development also effectively provides more time for industry discussions, like the ones underway at the Information Technology Industry Council.
The full appeals court whose three-judge panel threw out an FCC decision to censure Fox for broadcasting unscripted swear words on 2002 and 2003 music awards shows probably won’t agree to rehear the case, said law professors and industry lawyers with indecency expertise watching the proceeding. The six we surveyed said the chances of the 2nd U.S. Court of Appeals in New York granting the commission’s request are low, as with most such requests for en banc rehearings. They said the ten judges may not be moved by FCC arguments that panel’s July ruling conflicts with the Supreme Court decision which sent the case back to the 2nd Circuit, the high court’s landmark 1978 Pacifica indecency ruling and other cases and would hobble the commission’s ability to regulate indecency. The FCC’s request, made Thursday, was expected (CD Aug 25 p3).
A federal appeals court in Philadelphia tossed out two key provisions in rules for designated entities (DE) approved prior to the AWS-1 auction in 2006, which were also in effect during the 700 MHz auction that started the following year. Council Tree, which took the FCC to court, claimed victory Tuesday even though the Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit did not invalidate the results of either auction.
An appeals court’s recent reversal of an FCC finding that unscripted curse words aired during prime time broadcasts are indecent could be applied to another case involving the appearance of a woman’s buttocks, the U.S. government said. The case on fleeting swear words reversed by the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New York (CD July 14 p1) wasn’t on the subject of scripted airing of nude adults, as occurred in the 2003 NYPD Blue episode now at issue. Yet the three-judge panel’s decision on Fox v. FCC “does not turn on such distinctions,” said the government’s brief.
Public interest groups and industry players got what may be their last chance to offer formal comments on Chairman Julius Genachowski’s proposed “third-way” broadband reclassification proposal. Reply comments were due at the agency Thursday. The FCC has logged almost 40,000 comments in the proceeding in the past 30 days, according to commission records, with many of the major players offering extensive comments that go on for dozens of pages.