Howard Buskirk

Chmn. Powell said Thurs. he hasn’t decided whether the Commission should take steps on its own to clear the 1.7 GHz spectrum occupied by the Dept. of Defense if Congress fails to pass the spectrum relocation trust fund bill (HR-1320). The comments came after the Commission approved 5-0 a “clean up” order that addresses some of the remaining parts of clearing the spectrum, which ultimately is to be auctioned for advanced wireless services (AWS).

AirCell and Boeing told the FCC they had adopted a joint approach on air-to-ground (ATG) communications, we learned Thurs. The companies revealed their agreement in a closed-door presentation late Wed. to staff of the Wireless Bureau and Office of Engineering & Technology. The FCC had suggested strongly that the companies -- which favor allowing carriers to share ATG spectrum -- work together. With the proposal, AirCell and Boeing stand in direct conflict with Verizon’s AirFone, which favors the awarding of 2 exclusive licenses at most.

The American Radio Relay League (ARRL) called on Chmn. Powell to recuse himself from voting today (Thurs.) on the FCC’s broadband over powerline order. The group said Powell violated sunshine rules by participating in a BPL event Tues. in Manassas, Va. (CD Oct 13 p10). But an official in the chairman’s office said ARRL was misreading the rules and that Powell did nothing wrong.

The Assn. of Public Safety Communications Officials urged the FCC to delay any order on air-to-ground (ATG) communications until interference issues potentially affecting public safety are resolved. The filing made late Tues. is expected carry weight at the FCC because of the interest in protecting public safety. An ATG order is otherwise expected to get a vote at the Nov. agenda meeting.

A special search committee led by the Assn. of Public Communications Officials selected a team headed by BearingPoint, formally KMPG Consulting, to administer the multibillion dollar 800 MHz rebanding, the Transition Administrator Search Committee (TASC) said. The FCC must still sign off on the recommendation. As expected, the group picked a relatively large consulting firm, with 16,000 employees in 29 countries, to head what is expected to be a massive, multiyear project. Law firm Squires, Sanders & Dempsey and telecom firm Baseline Telecom are working with BearingPoint. TASC said it had received applications from 12 firms and met with each to assess their qualifications. TASC said the BearingPoint team showed “the strongest skills among those responding.” One source said of the selection: “As long as Nextel goes along with whomever it is it really doesn’t matter.” A 2nd source said the selection of a major consulting firm and partners had been expected. “There’s a lot of moving parts you have to deal with and you need some size.”

The FCC plans to look at its radio frequency identification (RFID) rules for a possible update, said Edmond Thomas, chief of the FCC Office of Engineering & Technology. Speaking Thurs. at a Commission symposium on RFID, Thomas said the move is necessary given that the technology is poised to grow in popularity quickly. However, Chmn. Powell said Thurs. he hasn’t reached any conclusions. And other FCC sources headed into the symposium said the initial belief at the Commission was that new rules weren’t needed at this time.

T-Mobile told the FCC in a filing how UNE rules should be rewritten; wireless carriers need access to high-capacity links at competitive prices in order to provide the kind of intermodal competition often cited by the FCC as a sign of competition. “Despite investing heavily in the deployment of their wireless infrastructure, CMRS providers still must rely on incumbent LEC facilities to provide the connections that link their base stations to their mobile switching centers (MSCs), particularly the facilities connecting their base stations to incumbent LEC central offices,” the carrier said. “Currently, incumbent LECs provide over 95% of those wireline circuits to T-Mobile.” T-Mobile told the Commission it relies on links purchased from ILECs in 3 critical areas: (1) The last-mile link between the base station or cellsite and the ILEC’s central office; (2) interoffice transport connecting incumbent LEC central offices; (3) the link between the MSC and the incumbent LEC wire center serving the MSC. T-Mobile said for each of these elements the FCC should conduct a separate impairment analysis “focusing on the actual deployment of competitive facilities, to determine whether the Communications Act and the FCC’s implementing rules require incumbent LECs to provide competitors unbundled access to those elements at cost-based rates.”

The Universal Service Administrative Corp. (USAC), which administers the $2.25 billion federal E-rate program, acknowledged at a Senate Commerce Committee hearing Tues. it had lost $4.6 million as a result of an accounting change requiring the corporation to have cash on hand to meet commitment letters. The change forced USAC to sell off high interest Treasury bills (T-bills) and other assets, paying significant penalties.

A new economic analysis of the Cingular-AT&T Wireless merger found that consumers will see wireless and wireline phone service costs increase $3 billion annually, CompTel/ASCENT said in a report released Fri. The analysis comes on the eve of a debate among commissioners’ offices on the merger, which is expected to be before them in the next few days. The filing is significant in that wireline-wireless issues are expected to get considerable attention as the FCC takes up the merger.

Comr. Copps said Thurs. the FCC should consider the wisdom of allowing further use of unlicensed devices in parts of the band occupied by wireless carriers. Under current procedures some spectrum, such as 2.4 GHz, is set aside for unlicensed use. In other spectrum, for example ultra-wideband, the FCC provides for unlicensed use under existing licensed use. Copps told a 3G Americas seminar on 3G technologies that wireless carriers may face enough concerns without having to worry about possible new interference: “Mobile phone licensees don’t know if tomorrow the FCC will allow another spectrum user to share their bands and what the rules will be… Maybe we need to decide that there is enough uncertainty for mobile carriers today and that underlay rights are not appropriate in the already heavily trafficked CMRS bands, even if they are appropriate elsewhere, which I believe they may be.” Copps also reiterated his calls for formal merger guidelines at the FCC on the eve of an order on the Cingular-AT&T Wireless merger. “I can’t talk about pending mergers, but I can say that it amazes me that the FCC does not have wireless merger guidelines. We ushered in a new world with the elimination of the spectrum cap, making many new mergers possible, yet we didn’t replace it with anything.” Copps told the conference he hoped to see more growth in telecom investment led by wireless growth. To that end “governments, starting with our own, need to provide more predictability and transparency to the market,” he said.