Howard Buskirk

A new coalition representing high tech companies and DBS operators -- the Coalition for 4G in America -- asked the FCC to offer 700 MHz spectrum mostly in giant blocks and allow package bidding that would clear the way for EchoStar and DirecTV to put together a national wireless broadband network. Intel, Yahoo, Google, Skype and Access Spectrum signed off on the proposal with the DBS operators. The companies urged the FCC to divide the 60 MHz of spectrum to be sold into supersized regional (REAG) licenses and midsized major economic area licenses, but not the small license areas sought by small carriers. The group also said the FCC should allow package bidding, under which a company could bid for a national license across all regions. If such a bid were higher than the sum of bids for individual licenses, the national bidder would win. “This would essentially enable a 3rd pipe into the home,” said a supporter of the plan: “Most of the other parties in this docket are looking to fill in footprints or small geographic areas rather than provide a 3rd pipe nationwide… It’s really a story about new entrants and new technologies, and it’s a WiMAX story because you need 10 MHz blocks to do WiMAX.” The group said the 15 MHz paired commercial allocation in the upper 700 MHz band should be reconfigured into a 16.5 MHz paired allocation -- to be divided into a 11 MHz pair and a 5.5 MHz pair. “The use of 5.5 MHz ‘building blocks’ gives an immediate 10% increase in bandwidth compared to 5 MHz blocks,” the group said in a filing at the Commission: “This allows more capable next- generation broadband network performance, going into the auction.” The filing argued that package bidding would allow companies to more efficiently buy spectrum: “The use of package bidding and this licensing scheme would promote new entry by permitting flexible business plans and preventing a company from blocking nationwide entry simply by acquiring one regional license.”

Comr. Adelstein Tues. urged caution on the start of the 700 MHz auction. He said he favors an early auction, but rural and small carriers will need more lead time than their larger counterparts to line up financing. Sources told us they expect rules for the auction to be released in April, and the auction to be held in the fall. Adelstein also said after a presentation to the Freedom to Connect conference he hasn’t decided whether Carterfone rules should apply to wireless.

On a visit last week to Mexico FCC Comr. McDowell met with top communications officials there about 800 MHz cross- border issues, sources said. One said the meetings led to “really substantial discussions.” McDowell met with Undersecy. for Communications Rafael del Villar, counterpart to the U.S. NTIA dir., and with Hector Osuna, chmn. of COFETEL, Mexico’s FCC, as well as with COFETEL Comrs. Jose Luis Peralta Higuera and Ernesto Gil Elorduy.

The FCC will meet March 22, said a posting on the Commission website. No orders were circulated last week specifically for votes at the meeting, but almost 90 items are “on circulation,” so Chmn. Martin has plenty to choose from as he puts together an agenda. Among items most likely to get a vote, Commission sources said, are the TV violence report, an order that would reclassify wireless broadband as an information service, a long-awaited order addressing rules for customer proprietary network information, and an in-band on-channel (IBOC) order, which is expected to allow FM multicasting and AM digital broadcasts at night. One or more of these items may be voted on before the meeting.

The FCC should reject M2Z’s proposal to build a 20 MHz national broadband network in the 2155-2175 MHz spectrum band, CTIA said Fri. The spectrum should be auctioned, not given to one company, it said. But M2Z got potentially significant support from the Media Access Project. And M2Z gave the FCC a study finding economic benefits to consumers of as much as $25 billion in 2007 dollars should it build its network.

Cyren Call considers itself in a long term audition to run a proposed public safety broadband trust but expects competition, Cyren Call founder Morgan O'Brien said in an interview for C-SPAN’s series “The Communicators” that was set to air over the weekend. O'Brien conceded that time is running short, with the 700 MHz auction expected to start as early as this summer. Meanwhile, Sen. McCain (R-Ariz.) made good on a promise to introduce legislation that would set aside 30 MHz of 700 MHz spectrum for a public-safety broadband network.

Any “regulation” requiring net neutrality for wireless broadband could hamper what has become the fastest growing way of connecting to the Internet, CTIA told the FTC. Nearly 60% of new high-speed lines Dec. 2005-June 2006 were mobile broadband wireless lines, CTIA said. The written comments addressed issues raised in a Feb. FTC summit on broadband connectivity competition policy

Brownsville, Tex., signed a $4 million contract with IBM to build a citywide wireless Internet network used by city workers and offered to public users. The network, at first based on Wi-Fi, is expected to evolve to WiMAX as equipment for mobile access becomes available. “We will use a multitude of technologies,” IBM official Kevin Mazzatta told us: “The discussion is about making sure we have the right technology. It is not always licensed or unlicensed. In this case we have a combination.” Mazzatta said Brownsville is the first city identified as using IBM’s new Digital Communities Service Product, and other announcements are coming. “We're growing at a record pace, and the best way for Brownsville to provide city services is by embracing new technology,” City Mgr. Charlie Cabler said: “We'll see a wide range of improvements with this modernization effort, ranging from local police getting wireless access to criminal databases, providing more knowledge in the field, to our citizens being able to more quickly apply for building permits and inspections online instead of through the mail or at a city office.”

Sprint Nextel doesn’t plan to bid on spectrum in the 700 MHz auction later this year or early 2008, top executives said Wed. in a call on Q4 and year-end financial results. At year-end Sprint had $2 billion cash that it will use to buy back stock and for other purposes, not as spectrum bait. “At this time we have no interest in participation in that,” CEO Gary Forsee said: “We've got the best spectrum position of any of the carrier competitors.”

Carriers have been “disingenuous” in contending that public safety will already have plenty of good spectrum at 700 after the DTV transition, and won’t don’t need more, said David Boyd, dir.-command, control & interoperability at DHS. “They haven’t got a clue what emergency operations are like or what is required,” Boyd said during an FCBA lunch Wed.