The Office of Management and Budget approved the FCC process of addressing the backlog of applications from 2003 for FM translators, said a notice in the Federal Register (http://xrl.us/bnjm8n). This clears the way for the FCC to get the culling started, Fletcher Heald law firm said on its blog (http://xrl.us/bnjm8r). The process will likely happen pretty fast, it said: The FCC has been under considerable pressure to move along proceedings around low-power FM stations, “and clearing the FM translator backlog is an essential first step.” The firm urged the applicants to become familiar with the FCC’s process, determine how it affects their applications, “and be prepared to act in short order."
There is no need for a special band class 17 to protect some 700 MHz licensees from interference, C-Spire representatives told FCC Wireless Bureau staff during a meeting last week. C-Spire has urged the FCC to adopt rules requiring device interoperability for the lower 700 MHz band. “We reiterated the conclusion, supported by substantial quantitative data now in the record of this proceeding, that there is no engineering justification for the creation or continued use of Band 17 equipment and devices in Lower 700 MHz paired spectrum deployments,” C-Spire said in a filing at the commission (http://xrl.us/bnjm8i). “For example, the test that Qualcomm performed did not employ 700 MHz components or devices. Instead, Qualcomm has provided data related to a 1900 MHz power amplifier in a configuration that does not reflect the spacing that exists between Lower 700 MHz channels."
Rep. Hansen Clarke, D-Mich., called for a congressional hearing to examine ways that the government can facilitate emergency communications. The request came in a letter Monday to the leaders of the House Emergency Preparedness, Response and Communications Subcommittee. Specifically, Clarke urged Subcommittee Chairman Gus Bilirakis, R-Fla., and Ranking Member Laura Richardson, D-Calif., to examine how the FCC’s broadcast incentive auction could impact over-the-air television coverage, and assess the advantages of activating broadcast radio chips in mobile devices. Broadcasters should retain their service areas in order to preserve their ability to provide emergency information to local communities, Clarke wrote. Furthermore, the activation of broadcast radio chips in mobile devices would provide consumers with fast and reliable access to emergency alerts, the letter said. Neither CEA nor CTIA had comment.
FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski “got it absolutely correct” in comments going beyond spectrum staring made after Friday’s FCC meeting on the nation’s spectrum policy (CD Aug 6 p8), AT&T Vice President Joan Marsh said in a blog post Monday. Genachowski said he wanted to make clear he still favors clearing spectrum for auction, where appropriate. “He correctly noted that it’s not ‘an either/or choice’ -- we will likely need to rely on both models to unlock the full value of our nation’s scarce spectrum resources,” Marsh wrote (http://xrl.us/bnjm7w). “We agree and support the FCC’s direction on spectrum policy. The Commission has long led the way in acknowledging the spectrum challenges our nation faces. The National Broadband Plan was the first major policy document to recognize the need to allocate significant new bands for commercial use -- and the dire consequences if its goal of an additional 500 MHz of spectrum wasn’t met. The FCC has also demonstrated the will to address barriers to efficient spectrum use, as evidenced in its ongoing efforts to rationalize for mobile broadband use the MSS S-band and the currently under-utilized WCS band."
The FCC Wireless Bureau consolidated four separate spectrum transactions involving Verizon Wireless under a single record. The transactions are Verizon’s buy of spectrum licenses from SpectrumCo, Cox and Leap Wireless and the Verizon Wireless/T-Mobile spectrum swap. “After review of the records in WT Docket Nos. 12-4 and 12-175, as well as the record associated with the Verizon Wireless-Leap Wireless Applications, we conclude that there is a commonality of issues, particularly with respect to the aggregation of spectrum and the public interest arguments raised by the applicants and various petitioners and commenters,” the bureau said in a public notice (http://xrl.us/bnjm4v). “For administrative convenience, given the commonality of issues, we consolidate the records in WT Docket Nos. 12-4 and 12-175 and the record associated with the Verizon Wireless-Leap Wireless Applications for purposes of our review and consideration of those issues.” The two dockets remain.
Sea Launch is preparing its vessels for launch of the Intelsat 21 satellite. Liftoff is planned for Aug. 16, Sea Launch said. The Sea Launch team will begin a 72-hour countdown when launch vessels arrive at the equator, it said. The Zenit-3SL rocket will lift the satellite “into a defined high-perigee geosynchronous transfer orbit."
The FCC should reject AT&T’s proposals on how the agency should handle renewal applications by Wireless Communications Service licensees, Green Flag Wireless said in a letter to the commission. Those proposals were laid out by AT&T in an ex parte filing last month (http://xrl.us/bnjm2z). “The thrust of AT&T’s presentation to the Commission’s staff seems to have been an effort to circumvent both the existing rules adopted by the Commission to handle precisely the situation that has arisen and the sixty-odd years of precedent establishing that incumbents may not simply be granted a renewal in the absence of substantial service,” Green Flag said (http://xrl.us/bnjm3w). “AT&T adopts an attitude of prima facie entitlement to the WCS spectrum and invites the Commission to join with it in devising a scheme to eliminate the irksome complication of competing applications. ... The right to equal treatment is not merely a legal nicety that must be given grudging obeisance. AT&T did absolutely nothing with these licenses during the license term. There are no equitable or other considerations that should give a regulator pause in stripping a do-nothing incumbent of its license.” AT&T’s proposals are “both contrary to law and contrary to the public interest,” Green Flag said. “Rather than clarifying the current situation, the proposal would muddy the waters further, overturn a half century of settled law on renewal expectancies, and set a dangerous precedent in support of spectrum warehousing."
Rep. Dennis Kucinich, D-Ohio, urged cellphone companies to display radiation warnings on their products, in a news release Monday. Kucinich introduced the Cell Phone Right To Know Act (HR-6358), which would require a study of the negative biological effects of cellphone use and labels to communicate any health dangers to consumers. “Consumers have a right to know the radiation levels of cell phones and whether they are buying the phone with the lowest -- or the highest -- level of exposure to cell phone radiation,” Kucinich said. “They also deserve to have up-to-date exposure standards that are put together by health professionals without conflicts of interest.” Kucinich’s warning came as the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals prepares to consider an appeal this week of a 2011 decision that blocked a San Francisco city ordinance that would have required cellphone radiation labels (CD Oct 31 p7). CTIA, which sought to block enforcement of the San Francisco law in October, did not comment.
Intelsat General said it successfully demonstrated the ability to deliver high-speed broadband and video to aircraft. Intelsat simultaneously sent secure video and high-speed broadband signals to and from an in-flight aircraft, automatically switching beams across three satellites over four continents, it said. The data rates achieved were 6 Mbps to and 1 Mbps from the moving aircraft, Intelsat said. The rates “enabled the sending of multiple video feeds in each direction while simultaneously conducting interactive broadband exchanges,” it said.
TDS Telecommunications officials discussed the FCC’s rules for calculating the 2011 base revenue period for rate-of-return carriers and, more specifically, the limitations on the limited waiver process in footnote 1745 of last year’s USF/Intercarrier compensation transformation order in a meeting with Wireline Bureau officials. “We discussed the nature and purpose of footnote 1745 and ways in which its objective can be met without impeding the ability of carriers to recover the funds needed to best pursue the Commission’s policy objective of widespread and ubiquitous broadband build out,” TDS said (http://xrl.us/bnjm2e).