At Precursor Group conference Tues. dominated by talk of Triennial UNE Review, Verizon Chmn. Ivan Seidenberg called on FCC to adopt “clear national standards,” including no unbundling for DS1 and DS3 lines. He reiterated criticism of current UNE regime, calling it “big wet blanket” on investment and saying Commission had “golden opportunity” to reverse that trend.
SBC Senior Exec. Vp Ross Ireland issued urgent call to communications industry Tues. to coordinate standards- development efforts, saying failure to do so would continue to be “significant drain on our business.” Service providers as well as equipment manufacturers must begin questioning value of investing in particular standards-setting bodies, he said in morning keynote at Assn. for Telecom Industry Solutions (ATIS) Security Summit at Intelsat hq in Washington.
General Accounting Office (GAO) report released Mon., citing past govt. difficulties in resolving conflicts among spectrum users, called for independent federal commission to examine U.S. spectrum management. Report, requested by Sens. Hollings (D-S.C.) and Burns (R-Mont.), said NTIA and FCC already had stepped up communications on spectrum issues but “their different jurisdictional responsibilities appear likely to result in piecemeal efforts that lack the coordination to facilitate major policy changes.”
Public safety groups opposed request by small wireless carriers to FCC to forbear from applying certain Enhanced 911 Phase 2 accuracy requirements. National Emergency Number Assn., National Assn. of State Nine One One Administrators and Assn. of Public Safety Communications Officials International (APCO) urged FCC last week to grant such relief on case-by-case basis. Tier 3 carriers seeking relief are smallest operators, with fewer than 500,000 subscribers. Several have proposed Commission forbear from enforcement action against Tier 3 carriers that couldn’t achieve precise caller location accuracy levels set out in FCC rules. “Plainly, the evidence of rural difficulties does not support the broad forbearance requested,” APCO filing said. “For that matter, there is no attempt to define ‘rural.’ Altogether, these gaps and ambiguities threaten to open floodgates that would wash away the Phase 2 regulations.” Public safety groups said petition “raises the specter” that Phase 2 deployment would “become so expensive as to make personal wireless service unaffordable to rural consumers.” That prospect is no less desirable than public safety agencies’ consuming hours or days looking for callers who can’t be found in emergencies, APCO said. “Throughout the petition runs the assumption that refined location determinations are less important in rural areas than in urban or suburban locales,” it said. “The assumption is unfounded. Each urban, suburban or rural environment presents a set of location challenges unique to the time and circumstances of the single call.” Verizon Wireless told FCC there wasn’t legal or policy justification for applying different technical and reliability standards for E-911 accuracy based on carrier size. CTIA told FCC it supported relief sought by Tier 3 carriers and said it was seeking forbearance for all carriers operating in rural areas, not just smallest operators. It reiterated some of same concerns raised by small carriers, including high cost of adding base stations in rural areas for network-based Phase 2 solutions for analog and TDMA systems. “Granting limited forbearance to all carriers operating in rural areas will provide sufficient time to determine appropriate Phase 2 technologies for those areas, while avoiding repeated investment in unsuitable technologies that may lead to subscriber rate increases or even discontinuance of service where cost recovery among a very small subscriber base is economically unfeasible,” CTIA said.
While national focus on homeland security has prompted federal, state and local public safety organizations to switch to digital communication for voice and data in times of crisis, vendor panel on interim interoperability solutions at Public Safety Wireless Network Symposium in L.A. Wed. suggested there might be slow progress in getting every community on board.
United Telecom Council cautioned Thurs. that priority access service (PAS) contract awarded by National Communications System to T-Mobile USA this week “will be largely useless” in aiding communications in crises. “Power industry personnel and traditional public safety agencies need communications most when power is out, and thus, commercial wireless systems are down,” UTC Pres. Bill Moroney said: “Priority doesn’t mean a thing if the system isn’t working.” T-Mobile won contract to be first carrier for PAS, with initial nationwide capability in 15 cities, including N.Y. and Washington (CD Jan 22 p5). System is designed to give priority on wireless networks to national security and first responders in emergencies, without bumping existing users off system. While system will give access to cell sites to first responders in emergencies, UTC said its members were increasingly troubled by “federal officials’ apparent reliance on commercial wireless to meet noncommercial emergency needs.” Prioritized access on commercial wireless systems isn’t “appropriate” to meet emergency needs of critical infrastructure providers and “public safety agencies shouldn’t consider it an answer either,” UTC Vp-Gen. Counsel Jill Lyon said.
Sen. Rockefeller (D-W.Va.) will re-introduce broadband tax credit bill designed to expand deployment in rural areas, spokeswoman told us. Bill will be similar to S-88, which had 65 co-sponsors last year but wasn’t passed out of Finance Committee. It’s likely to be offered at end of Jan., spokeswoman said. Time ran out in Senate in last session before appropriate legislative vehicle could be found to attach bill as rider, said Grant Seifert, Telecom Industry Assn. vp-govt. relations.
Planners of wireless priority access service (PAS) system have turned to Office of Management & Budget in effort to restore $73 million for program trimmed from defense spending bills last fall. Meanwhile, National Communications System (NCS) said Tues. it had awarded contract for T-Mobile USA to be initial carrier for PAS. NCS Deputy Mgr. Brenton Greene said his agency was working to provide funding that would cover full operating capacity for PAS by year-end.
Local govts and their national associations are holding briefing for staffs of Senate and House Commerce Committees Jan. 17 as part of effort to commit more resources and leaders to counter telecom industry lobbying and to push what they call “proactive public policy agenda” on Hill. Local govts. formed TeleCommUnity Alliance to focus solely on their agenda on Capitol Hill.
FCC action in Triennial UNE Review probably will be favorable to ILECs but reduction in regulatory requirements also could produce irrational exuberance for Bell companies, Legg Mason said in report. Report cautioned investors against “assuming too much about the magnitude and speed of the victory” because details are complex and likely to play out over time. “Large gains in Bell stock value premised on a quick and dramatic victory in the Triennial Review appear to ignore that the bulk of the systemic revenue drain off the Bell networks is due to wireless and Internet substitution, not UNE-P, in our view,” report said. “We think that some have exaggerated both the extent of the policy changes and their impact on industry profitability.” Report cited recent news coverage of Triennial Review that anticipated “huge win” for Bells, saying such reports could create “headline risk” for telecom stocks. Such risks could continue with Jan. 14 Senate Commerce Committee hearing on local telecom competition and broadband, report said, where all 5 comrs. will testify on upcoming proceedings. While report said such hearings rarely produced significant insight on policy developments, answers from comrs. could provide clarity on several UNE questions, including: (1) Relevant markets. Question of whether market for UNEs is national or “subnational,” along with proper regulatory approaches to business, residential, urban, rural and suburban markets, could provide insight into Commission’s direction. (2) Preemption of states. Comrs. could be asked what role states should play in maintaining UNEs. (3) Provisioning. Do comrs. believe adjustment in hot-cut process is necessary? (4) Treatment of switching after elimination. Will comrs. support continued access to switching under different pricing regime? “We think a clear road map from the FCC commissioners is unlikely to emerge Tuesday, but there is some chance they will provide further hints, which could spark new headlines and stock fluctuations,” report said. “And if a majority clearly surfaces on at least some of the above questions, we think that such market movements might this time be more justified.” Hearing is scheduled for 9:30 a.m., Rm. 253, Russell Bldg.