The April 12 FCC open meeting will focus on wireless issues, including procedures for a June 29 auction of advanced wireless services (AWS) licenses. That item is expected to require a vote at the meeting on the controversial issue of whether bidding should be secret. FCC Chmn. Martin said he would seek a Commission vote on the public notice (CD March 24 p3), though such documents usually are instituted by staff without commissioners voting. The AWS notice will include filing requirements, minimum open bids and other procedures. Also on the agenda for votes: (1) An order addressing a petition by environmentalists concerned about bird deaths at communications towers. The petition seeks changes in siting regulations. (2) An order setting procedures for relocating Broadband Radio Service and Fixed Microwave Service operations, including cost sharing obligations, in the 2.1 GHz band “as well as addressing a related petition for reconsideration.” (3) An order on spectrum sharing among incumbent and future services in the 2495-2500 MHz band. The agency also will consider an order on related changes to the service rules for broadband radio service and educational broadband service (EBS). The Wireless Communications Assn. and Catholic TV Network told the FCC Wed. they've reached agreement on part of this item involving term limits for EBS spectrum leases. The deal would set a maximum 30-year term but on the 15th year and every 5 years after that EBS licensees would have “an opportunity to access additional services and equipment…”
Wireless Spectrum Auctions
The FCC manages and licenses the electromagnetic spectrum used by wireless, broadcast, satellite and other telecommunications services for government and commercial users. This activity includes organizing specific telecommunications modes to only use specific frequencies and maintaining the licensing systems for each frequency such that communications services and devices using different bands receive as little interference as possible.
What are spectrum auctions?
The FCC will periodically hold auctions of unused or newly available spectrum frequencies, in which potential licensees can bid to acquire the rights to use a specific frequency for a specific purpose. As an example, over the last few years the U.S. government has conducted periodic auctions of different GHz bands to support the growth of 5G services.
Boeing apparently will sit out the air-to-ground (ATG) auction, based on short-form applications filed at the FCC. Otherwise, interest in the auction appears strong, with 12 firms, including incumbent and favored competitor Verizon Airfone, filing. AirCell, Airfone’s likeliest challenger, is in the running. The auction, of spectrum to be used for inflight broadband on commercial airliners, begins May 10.
Cingular, T-Mobile, U.S. Cellular, Leap Wireless, Edge Wireless, MetroPCS, along with the Rural Telecom Group, made a last-ditch compromise proposal to persuade the FCC not to order blind bidding in the June advanced wireless services (AWS) auction. Members of the group had meetings scheduled this week at the FCC. The item is expected on the Commission’s sunshine notice Wed. for the April 12 agenda meeting, which would cut off lobbying.
The communications tower sector remains an “attractive investment,” Stanford Group said this week. More consolidation in the sector is “highly likely,” Stanford Group said, as public firms leverage their value to grab up smaller companies, always good for shareholders. A new nationwide wireless player could emerge from the summer spectrum auction, enhancing the sector’s value as tower infrastructure business goes up, the report said. Stanford Group highlighted American Tower’s prospects, and said next week’s CTIA convention “could prove a catalyst” for tower companies, as many 3G technologies will be highlighted there.
The FCC is expected to hand down this week an order prohibiting ties between designated entities (DEs) and carriers. But questions remain about the breadth of the restrictions the FCC. The central question is whether the FCC will agreed to stick with language in a Feb. further notice of proposed rulemaking restricting relationships between DEs and “entities with significant interests in communications services” rather than just DEs and the major wireless carriers (CD Feb 6 p2).
Former FCC Chief Economist Thomas Hazlett and Michael Calabrese, vp of the New America Foundation, disagreed sharply on where the FCC should draw the line in promoting unlicensed spectrum as an alternative to auctions. They faced off in a Catholic U. telecom symposium debate on the advantages of unlicensed vs. licensed spectrum.
Asked what they would do to increase broadband deployment, a panel of attorneys Tues. offered a panoply of ideas, ranging from tax incentives to better consumer education to more reliance on powerline communications. Some panelists at a symposium sponsored by Catholic U.’s law school Tues. also recommended more dependence on the marketplace and less on regulation, although others said regulators better be sure that marketplace remains open to competition.
A group of 7 wireless carrier executives, joined by 2 investors and the Rural Telecom Group, wrote to Chmn. Martin asking he back off a proposal to conceal bidders’ identities in a June advanced wireless services (AWS) auction. Their letter signals what’s expected to be a full court press. Last week Martin said he would ask the Commission to vote on a public notice, though none is required (CD March 24 p3).
CTIA and the major carriers urged the FCC to back away from tentative conclusions in a proposed rulemaking that the Commission no longer should award bidding credits or other small business benefits to “designated entities” that have a “material relationship” with the major national carriers. The FCC earlier this month sought comment on a further rulemaking changing its DE rules before June’s advanced wireless services (AWS) auction (CD Feb 6 p2). DE Council Tree had asked the FCC to bar ties between major carriers and DEs in areas where a carrier already has spectrum (CD Jan 18 p1).
Chmn. Martin wants a full FCC vote on a contentious public notice that would require blind bids in an advanced wireless services (AWS) auction this June, sources said Thurs. The Wireless Bureau had been expected to issue the notice. Now the FCC is expected to vote at its April 12 meeting. In another wireless sector matter, sources said Martin is recirculating a BRS/EBS order. An earlier version was withdrawn.