Howard Buskirk

A “leaner, more robust and more agile” Sprint will see continued single-digit revenue growth in 2005 -- with double-digit growth in wireless making up for double-digit losses in its long-distance unit and downward pressure on its local service -- Sprint’s top officials said Thurs. during the company’s annual investor conference in N.Y.

The Dept. of Defense remains fully committed to full rollout of radio frequency identification (RFID) for the entire supply chain by 2007, Maj. Gen. Daniel Mongeon, dir.-logistics operations for the Defense Logistics Agency, told several hundred attendees Wed. at DoD’s RFID Summit for Industry.

Aloha Partners announced Wed. a potentially significant consolidation in the still-to-develop 700 MHz broadband wireless market, buying 2 of its top competitors, Cavalier Group and DataCom Wireless. The closely held company was already the nation’s largest holder of 700 MHz spectrum, while the others were #2 and #3, respectively. With the mergers, Aloha said it will own spectrum in 244 licensed markets covering 175 million POPs.

The Tower Siting Policy Alliance (TSPA), representing a group of wireless carriers and tower companies, filed a petition for reconsideration on the FCC’s National Programmatic Agreement (NPA) on tower siting, saying some provisions undermine the intent of streamlining the approval process. The alliance zeroes in on requirements for what it argues are overly burdensome archeological field surveys and overly permissive tribal exemptions from exclusions. The members were active proponents of concluding work on the NPA.

In a potentially troubling development for wireless carriers, the FCC Fri. asked for formal comment on a petition for declaratory ruling asking the Commission to further streamline its rules on tower siting, in this case for towers that have already received wetlands clearance from the Army Corps of Engineers.

Multicast must-carry rules are on the “fast track” for approval at the Feb. 10 FCC meeting (see note on full agenda in this issue), Comr. Copps said Thurs. at a meeting with reporters. Copps indicated he would vote in favor of the rules, though he’s disappointed with the rulemaking process. Copps also said the Commission is overdue to move forward on intercarrier compensation (ICC) reform, starting with a vote at the same meeting on a proposed rulemaking. Copps encouraged companies and groups that quit the Intercarrier Compensation Forum (ICF) to consider rejoining.

Mexican and Canadian border areas are posing a significant problem for the 800 MHz Transition Administrator (TA) as it constructs a reconfiguration plan, the TA said in a filing with the FCC released Tues. Nextel has yet to agree to the 800 MHz plan devised by the Commission but must give a response by the end of the day Feb. 7.

In a major development for the telematics industry, GM and OnStar announced that the service will be standard on all GM cars in 2007. That means the wireless service will automatically come on all cars GM makes in the U.S. starting that year. It made 5 million last year.

Divisions appear to growing rather than narrowing between the various sides, including small and large ILECs, wireless carriers and the states, as the FCC readies a proposed rulemaking on intercarrier compensation (ICC) reform for its Feb. 10 meeting. Sources told us that as of Fri. the commissioners were just starting to consider the rulemaking and accompanying orders to address associated wireless issues.

The FCC has voted 5-0 to deny an AT&T petition seeking to halt deregulation of the Bells’ provision of special access services, we've learned. However, in a partial victory for AT&T and its allies the FCC will issue a further notice of proposed rulemaking posing several questions about the future of special access charges. The FCC was making last-min. tweaks to the item prior to the release of text, which could come as early as today (Fri.), we're told.