Howard Buskirk

The FCC should quit telecom merger review, leaving it to Dept. of Justice antitrust experts, former FCC chief economist Michael Katz said Wed. at a D.C. conference sponsored by FCBA and the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research. In addition to his FCC stint, Katz once was a deputy assistant attorney gen. in DoJ’s antitrust unit.

The need for federal action to remove roadblocks such as slowed post-Katrina communications repairs will be a “major finding” of a pending Senate Homeland Security & Governmental Affairs Committee report, Chmn. Collins (R-Me.) said Wed. The report, due within weeks, will address the need to improve first responders’ interoperable communications, she said.

A NARUC forum’s intercarrier compensation (ICC) reform proposal is drawing opposition from NASUCA, wireless carriers, CLECs and VoIP providers. NARUC said it wants parties to study the proposal and comment at month’s end, but sources said the latest ICC reform proposal already faces some of the same opposition fatal to earlier bids at compromise.

The FCC should require telecom operators to provide voicemail to customers displaced by disaster or simplify the process of porting phone numbers for those who have to abandon wireline phones, Pulver.com said. Pulver was joined by Evslin Consulting in a petition filed Mon. at the FCC. The proposal covers both wireline and wireless operators.

Cantor Fitzgerald is launching an online tool for buyers and sellers to trade wireless spectrum rights through its Spectrum & Tower Exchange. Cantor Fitzgerald is one of the firms that has been leading in the development of a secondary market for spectrum in the U.S., following the FCC’s secondary markets order 1- years ago. Darrin Mylet, vp- wireless service at Cantor, told us Mon. the U.S. secondary market is potentially highly robust because of all the frequencies that are subject to leasing. “It’s a very inefficient market that’s mostly done by specialists in different frequencies,” he said. “We're trying to create a more open market for spectrum… What are the terms and conditions associated with me buying a specific license?” Cantor maintains a database listing thousands of licenses. The trading tool helps potential buyers find a license in a specific area or sellers find a lessor. Cantor charges a transaction fee when a deal is completed. “There’s a lot of inventory of spectrum,” Mylet said. “There’s a lot of action. There’s a tremendous number of deals being done. We hope to make them get done in a way that is more efficient.”

The FCC should reverse course on a change to its auction rules for the upcoming advanced wireless services auction, said rural wireless carriers in a petition for reconsideration. The shift would make it harder for smaller players to bid as part of a consortium, they said.

M/A-COM, one of 2 firms dominating the U.S. market for police radio, wants a National Interoperability Network for Disaster Recovery (NINDR). The firms calls the $1 billion implementation cost considerably less than other proposed alternatives. M/A-COM wants NTIA, working with the Dept. of Homeland Security, to use $1 billion in 700 MHz auction proceeds due NTIA to fund a public safety interoperability grant program to use NINDR rather than pay for 700 MHz radios.

The IEEE 802.11 Working Group voted Fri. to establish the 1.0 draft of the 802.11n specification as the official standard. Bill McFarland, CTO for equipment maker Atheros, told us the group’s tentative acceptance of the draft was an important step toward certification for 802.11n, the next generation of the Wi-Fi standard, which is capable of throughput rates well above 100 Mbps, allowing such advanced applications as multimedia networking. McFarland said he expects the first products based on the draft standard to hit store shelves midyear. “There were not any significant technical changes,” McFarland said. “There were editorial changes. There was the addition of explanatory text and there were the addition of a number of appendices… What the vote really represents is the belief that the draft is now complete -- both consistent and technically accurate. And it has all of the necessary things in it that are required to become an IEEE standard.” The draft needed 75% approval to move forward and won approval from 87% of industry representatives at the meeting, McFarland said. Over the next 40 days members will review the draft; proceeding toward IEEE ratification, expected next year, would require another favorable vote at a May meeting. McFarland said small changes to the draft are likely, but it seems “very stable and complete at this point.”

The universal service fund (USF) has hidden costs well beyond what subscribers pay into the program, since taxes usually reduce use of services, Jerry Ellig, senior research fellow at George Mason U.’s Mercatus Center, said Thurs. during a USF discussion at the Digital Age Communications Act conference. A new study puts those hidden costs at $2 billion a year, about 1/2 what the program brings in, Ellig said.

A NARUC task force presented its proposed agreement on intercarrier compensation (ICC) reform in a closed door meeting at the FCC. Sources familiar with the presentation Wed. said the proposal would “harmonize” access charges significantly, dividing carriers into 3 groups and providing different compensation rates for large, medium and small carriers.