The FCC granted Texas special temporary authority for another 90 days for Harris County to run its 700 MHz public safety broadband network, said the Public Safety Bureau in an order released Monday (http://fcc.us/17UwzX9). FirstNet had concurred in the request, the order said. Texas “notes that significant progress has been made in negotiating a spectrum lease with FirstNet, and that there are ‘very few issues remaining,’ but that additional time is needed to conclude the negotiations,” said the order. “Texas explains that it achieved substantial deployment prior to enactment of the statute, and has brought eleven of its thirteen fixed sites into operation, with RF antennas and backhaul equipment installed at the remaining two."
Row 44 is seeking a 60-day special temporary authority beginning Dec. 16, to operate its Ku-band earth stations aboard aircraft using Satmex 8 at 116.8 degrees west (http://bit.ly/17NTRf8). In a separate application, LightSquared requested authority to add a remote earth station at Cedar Hill, Texas, to its existing license (http://bit.ly/17NSsFk).
EchoStar, SES and Intelsat urged the FCC to terminate the proceeding that asks whether incumbent satellite operators are harming competition and warehousing spectrum. The three again said current FCC and ITU rules “adequately ensure that satellite spectrum is efficiently utilized by commission licensees, while allowing licensees the flexibility necessary to meet market demand,” the companies said in an ex parte filing in docket 13-147(http://bit.ly/1aTvDk3). They also noted the lack of record support for further FCC action. The filing recounted a meeting with the satellite companies and staff members of the International Bureau. The companies previously supported dismissal of the claims brought by satellite integrators, which prompted the proceeding (CD Aug 21 p23).
FCC rules on the operation of wireless communications services in the 2.3 GHz band took effect Monday. The final rules were approved in an order on reconsideration in docket 07-293, which revised technical rules to enhance the ability of wireless communications services licensees to deploy mobile broadband networks “while establishing additional safeguards to protect neighboring Satellite Digital Audio Radio Service, Aeronautical Mobile Telemetry and Defense Switch Network networks from harmful interference,” the agency said in a Federal Register notice (http://1.usa.gov/1euylhf).
Boeing completed the functional qualification testing phase for the protected wideband satellite communications system. Its Family of Advanced Beyond Line-of-Sight Terminals (FAB-T) “will be used in the command and control of U.S. nuclear forces,” Boeing said in a news release (http://bit.ly/192AtZ1). FAB-T command post terminals will be installed in fixed and mobile ground installations “as well as aboard E-4B airborne operations center and E-6 airborne command post aircraft,” it said. “Flight tests for the advanced wideband terminals are expected to conclude this fall.” The testing is part of the U.S. Air Force FAB-T development contract, Boeing said.
FCC Commissioner Mignon Clyburn’s chief of staff stepped down and may leave the agency later this year, said commission officials Friday. They said that Dave Grimaldi, her chief of staff for the past several years except the time when she was acting chairwoman when he was chief counsel, left Clyburn’s office last week and has recused himself on all matters affecting it. Replacing him as chief of staff to Clyburn is Adonis Hoffman, said Hoffman. He had worked for the American Association of Advertising Agencies for a number of years, and more recently as an attorney advising on corporate responsibility and a Georgetown University adjunct professor. Grimaldi declined to comment.
Adak Eagle Enterprises and its subsidiary, Windy City Cellular, made an impassioned plea to FCC Commissioner Michael O'Rielly in a meeting Wednesday, said an ex parte filing posted Friday (http://bit.ly/1h7JCHJ). “With winter fast approaching and the already harsh weather on Adak Island [Alaska] becoming even more severe, it is crucial that the remote Adak community be able to continue relying on the essential services provided by AEE and WCC,” the filing said. The telco and carrier have only six more weeks until their interim funding runs out. “It is up to the Commission to make clear that it did not intend for the USF/[intercarrier compensation] Transformation Order to result in remote communities losing wireline service (service built with tax payer-funded RUS loans), losing broadband service, losing 911 service, and losing most of their wireless service,” the filing said. “The Commission did not intend to discourage investment” or “intend for communities that have working communications systems go dark.” AEE and WCC understand that “O'Rielly was not responsible for the 84% flash-cut to WCC’s funding and the rapid phasedown of AEE’s funding that took effect in early 2012,” they said. They are merely “hopeful that he will take this opportunity to help correct the Commission’s course before the companies are forced into bankruptcy and the remote Adak community is left without its only broadband service, only wireline service, only working 911 service, and most comprehensive wireless service -- a service that regularly saves lives."
Two senators introduced a bill to “encourage spectrum licensees to make unused spectrum available for use by rural and smaller carriers in order to expand wireless coverage,” as its title says. Sens. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., and Deb Fischer, R-Neb., introduced S-1776 Thursday, and the bill has been referred to the Commerce Committee. The bill’s text is not yet online, and a request for a copy of it was not granted by our deadline.
A deal for Charter to buy Time Warner Cable doesn’t make sense unless Charter CEO Tom Rutledge can run TWC better than it has been run in the past, said MoffettNathanson analyst Craig Moffett in a blog post Friday. “There simply aren’t enough synergies to support a reasonable valuation without ‘running it better.'” Rutledge told MoffettNathanson that the primary benefit of such a deal would be “his ability to run TWC’s business better than TWC’s management can,” Moffett said. That could mean that a Rutledge-run TWC would feature characteristics of Rutledge’s tenure at Cablevision and Charter, such as simplified pricing, a focus on bundling and “moving to aggressively exploit cable’s infrastructure advantage by first going all-digital,” said Moffett. Though Rutledge is “the best operating executive in the cable industry,” Moffett said, it might prove challenging for him to turn around Time Warner Cable. That means it could be more likely for Comcast to purchase Time Warner Cable, Moffett said. The FCC would have to approve such a deal, and that okay could be unlikely, Moffett said. The new company would have 33 percent of U.S. pay-TV subscribers, 60 percent of cable subscribers and 36 percent of all broadband subscriptions, said Moffett. “A company of that size would arguably have de facto control of what content could and couldn’t exist in the U.S.,” Moffett said. “Would the new FCC decide that concentration of that scale is in the public interest?” Cox Communications is another possible “white knight” for TWC, Moffett said, but it’s not clear if the owners would be interested. “What is clear, however, is that consolidation now really is afoot,” said Moffett. Analysts at Stifel Nicolaus agreed in an email to investors that a Comcast and Time Warner Cable combination would have a difficult regulatory path. “Government approval would be possible, but it would be costly, with serious risk,” said Stifel. “This would be a brawl.” The Department of Justice and FCC would likely “raise objections about the potential for Comcast-TWC bullying of competitors and suppliers, given the extent and linkages of their cable/broadband distribution, programming control, and broadcast ownership,” said the analysts. However, the operators could argue that the new company wouldn’t have as many total subscribers as AT&T or Verizon, and that previous FCC attempts to cap ownership in the cable market at 30 percent have been thrown out in court. “Comcast-TWC would only have about 33 percent of the market,” said Stifel. If such a deal were approved, it’s likely DOJ and FCC would extend the Comcast-NBCUniversal conditions to Time Warner Cable and also extend their duration, said Stifel. “But we believe the DOJ and FCC would probably want to go further, and at least strengthen the conditions.” Though the parties could work out conditions that might make the deal palatable, the government would likely seek “crippling conditions/divestitures or move to block the deal outright,” said the analysts. “Comcast-TWC could fight any DOJ challenge in court, and possibly win, but we believe it would be a lengthy and risky endeavor, complicated by possible FCC opposition that’s difficult to overcome."
A House Republican dismissed the prospects of video legislation introduced recently by Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va. “That’s not really going to see very much work in our side, if any,” said House Communications Subcommittee Vice Chairman Bob Latta, R-Ohio, speaking on an episode of C-SPAN’s The Communicators, set to be telecast Saturday, of Rockefeller’s Consumer Choice in Online Video Act. “I don’t see it moving along in the House.” He doubts the Satellite Television Extension and Localism Act will be a comprehensive bill and cited subcommittee Chairman Greg Walden, R-Ore., expressing desire for a clean reauthorization. “Dec. 31, 2014, is going to be here before we know it,” Latta said, referring to when STELA will expire. FCC spectrum auctions have occupied much subcommittee attention, particularly given the immense complexity of the broadcast incentive auction, Latta said. “This auction is going to be absolutely crucial,” he said, mentioning the revenue expected to come from it -- more than $20 billion. “We want it to be fair. You've got to really look at who the players are going to be out there.” He said there will have to be companies “willing to sell.” If AT&T and Verizon are excluded from the auction, it may cause others not to participate and affect overall revenue, he said. The subcommittee has invited all five FCC commissioners for a potential December oversight hearing. “It’s important that they all appear before us in committee, and that the committee can ask them questions to find out where they're going,” particularly in the area of process reform, Latta said, citing an interest in the “thought and philosophy” of the commissioners. Latta emphasized transparency and predictability and the importance of moving proceedings along at the agency. He stressed “cost-based analysis.”