The FCC should reallocate the 135.7-137.8 kHz band to use by amateur radio operators, the American Radio Relay League said in comments on a Nov. 19 NPRM, which proposed changes to Parts 2 and 97 of FCC rules. The band would be allocated on a secondary basis under the proposal. The FCC also proposed giving amateur radio operators primary use of the 1900-2000 kHz band, which they can now use on a less protected secondary basis. “The subject of an LF [low frequency] allocation for the Amateur Radio Service has a long history at the Commission,” ARRL said (http://bit.ly/VIMrUu). “To date, however, the Commission has not created one. Presently, the lowest domestic frequency allocation for the Amateur Service ... is at 1800-2000 kHz. There is an Amateur Radio allocation in all other areas of the radio spectrum, providing for experimentation in virtually all types of radio frequency communications.” ARRL also sought primary status in the 1900-2000 kHz band. The FCC notes in the NPRM: “Federal use of the 1900-2000 kHz band is ‘light,’ and that there are only 10 assignments authorizing Federal operations of any type in this band,” ARRL said.
The FCC asked if there are any formal objections to a proposal by AT&T to buy spectrum licenses from Cellular South, covering parts of Alabama, Georgia, and Tennessee. The Wireless Bureau said the companies said the buys will enable AT&T to “increase its system capacity, particularly for [LTE] services.” AT&T would get one cellular license, eight PCS licenses, 14 Lower 700 MHz C-block licenses and nine common carrier fixed point-to-point microwave licenses. Petitions to deny are due March 8, oppositions March 18 and replies March 25 (http://bit.ly/V22228).
LightSquared reiterated that its proposal to share 1675-1680 MHz spectrum is feasible. The wholesale satellite capacity company proposed sharing the spectrum in a band mainly used by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (CD Nov 6 p14). The FCC “has plenary statutory authority to grant those applications,” LightSquared said in an ex parte filing in docket 11-109 (http://bit.ly/YLK7L1). The filing recounted a meeting with staff from the Office of the General Counsel and the Office of Strategic Planning. The company plans to continue working with NOAA and other federal agencies to develop mutually beneficial solutions regarding the 1675-1680 MHz band, it said.
If the FCC agrees that Sprint has paid out enough in 800 MHz rebanding costs so the carrier won’t owe the federal government a “windfall” payment for the spectrum it received as part of the 800 MHz rebanding agreement, the FCC should also relax the auditing and accounting requirements faced by public safety licensees, the Association of Public-Safety Communications Officials said in a filing at the agency. “Those requirements have in some cases imposed substantial administrative costs on public safety incumbents, diverting time and resources from other critical agency tasks,” APCO said (http://bit.ly/Xa9QgY). “While Sprint will obviously have a continued interest in minimizing its costs and ensuring the legitimacy of all payments, the Commission will no longer have a need to protect the Treasury as there will no longer be a potential anti-windfall payment.” The letter was also signed by the International Association of Chiefs of Police and the International Association of Fire Chiefs. In January, Sprint asked the FCC (http://bit.ly/ZvvL2k) to declare it has met the obligation Nextel took on before it merged with Sprint, in the FCC’s landmark 800 MHz rebanding order in 2004, which required Nextel to pay the full value of the 10 MHz national spectrum license it got as part of the rebanding agreement. The public safety groups also asked the FCC to act with care in granting Sprint a reduction in the amount that must be covered by a letter of credit guaranteeing that funds will be available to pay all remaining reconfiguration expenses. “The Public Safety Organizations urge the Commission to scrutinize Sprint’s request carefully to ensure that the LOC is adequate to address a worst case scenario,” the filing said. “Sprint bases its proposed LOC amount in part on the [800 MHz] Transition Administrator’s metrics that document the range of reconfiguration expenses incurred so far by incumbents of various sizes. The Commission’s analysis should assume the [worst], i.e., that all of the reconfiguration costs still to occur will be at or above the highest percentile in the metrics."
Dish Network chose common carrier status for the AWS licenses to be held by its subsidiary, Gamma, upon modification of its ancillary terrestrial component license. It also chose non-common carrier status for its New DBSD Satellite Services, Dish said in a letter to the FCC in docket 12-70 (http://bit.ly/YvC731). Gamma plans to change its AWS-4 mobile satellite service licenses about May 1, “to change the regulatory status of the licenses to non-common carrier at that time,” Dish said. The modification of the ATC licenses of both subsidiaries are part of Dish’s effort to provide terrestrial service in the AWS-4 spectrum band (CD Feb 19 p10).
Charter asked the FCC Media Bureau for more time to support its petition to be let out of basic rate regulation in some Massachusetts towns (http://bit.ly/VUZ6Gl). The state’s Department of Telecommunications and Cable (DTC) opposed Charter’s special relief petition. Charter said it needs more time to respond to that opposition and DTC has consented to the requested extension to March 4.
When a customer chooses not to take plain old telephone service on a broadband-capable loop -- instead desiring to take only broadband -- the costs of that loop get reassigned to a category that doesn’t qualify for USF support, officials from NTCA, NECA and the Western Telecommunications Alliance told FCC Wireline Bureau officials Thursday (http://bit.ly/ZxVyuA). “In practical terms, this means that a consumer’s rates for broadband in high-cost areas will increase simply because that consumer might decide that he or she only wants broadband and no longer wants to purchase POTS on that line,” they said. “This result -- denying the availability of USF support and increasing broadband rates based solely upon a rural customer’s choice to purchase only broadband -- significantly undermines consumer freedom of choice, deters broadband adoption, and inhibits technological evolution.” The groups asked the commission to structure a standalone broadband funding mechanism to “fulfill the express and plainly stated intent” of its 2011 reform order.
CTIA and the Competitive Carriers Association unveiled a “ground-breaking cooperative effort” to accommodate those who want to attend both groups’ annual conference when they meet in Las Vegas in September 2014. The groups will offer dual-access passes for attendees to go to both CCA and CTIA show floors and keynote sessions and run a bus service between the Cosmopolitan, where CCA meets, and the Sands Expo and Convention Center, the site of the CTIA meeting. CCA will meet Sept. 8-10, CTIA Sept. 9-11.
A federal court should dismiss Sky Angel’s antitrust claims against C-SPAN, C-SPAN said in a brief filed with the U.S. District Court, Washington, in response to Sky Angel’s opposition to C-SPAN’s motion to dismiss the complaint. Sky Angel has alleged C-SPAN violated federal antitrust law by refusing to allow Sky Angel to distribute C-SPAN programming on its online video service. But in a brief that stopped just short of ridicule, C-SPAN argued that the court should toss Sky Angel’s inconsistent and contradictory complaint. C-SPAN highlighted areas where Sky Angel’s initial complaint and its opposition to the motion to dismiss contradict each other. “Such inconsistent and contradictory pleading is itself a basis for dismissal,” C-SPAN said. “Sky Angel cannot make out even the most basic of antitrust claims in this case because C-SPAN has done nothing wrong,” said Bruce Collins, C-SPAN’s general counsel. “Not every disappointment in life is an antitrust violation,” Collins said. “The tone of the brief should not inspire confidence in C-SPAN’s legal position,” said Jonathan Rubin, Sky Angel’s counsel. “If C-SPAN’s legal position were so clear, then why is it necessary to adopt a tone of ridicule in the first place?” he said. “They don’t seem to want to acknowledge basic principles of antitrust law -- that a trade association cannot get together for the purpose of disadvantaging a rival,” he said.
States can share data without creating threats to privacy, a GAO report released Friday said (http://1.usa.gov/159G92T). One challenge to sharing more data is “confusion or misperceptions around what agencies are allowed to share, as well as a tendency to be risk averse and overly cautious in their interpretation of federal privacy requirements,” the report said. Its authors interviewed stakeholders and took a close look at four states. The report recommended federal agencies clarify federal privacy requirements and harmonize them as well as “developing model data sharing agreements and informed consent language that comply with federal privacy requirements,” it said. The report cited the Department of Health and Human Services toolkit under review. That department should “ensure timely completion of its current work to clarify privacy requirements across programs, and OMB [should] consider additional ways to disseminate useful data sharing practices and tools that address privacy requirements,” the report recommended. The report contains “encouraging news” but also “underscores the need for better collaboration between state agencies as well as the federal government to share key information,” said Sen. Tom Carper, a Delaware Democrat, in a statement. “The federal government needs to lead this effort by clarifying for states the rules regarding the sharing and coordination of information."