Howard Buskirk

The high-profile investment of wireless pioneer Craig McCaw in ITFS spectrum has raised the stakes as the FCC considers a proposal to revise the rules for ITFS/MDS spectrum. McCaw is expected to have more to say about his plans and the business he’s building in a speech Wed. at the Wireless Communications Assn. meeting in Washington. McCaw met with FCC Chmn. Powell in April to talk about his views on ITFS. He’s viewed as being a force behind a pending FCC proposal to take 6 MHz from ITFS, combine it with another 6 MHz, and offer the spectrum for sale through auction for advanced services.

Leading education groups are ramping up pressure on the FCC to back away from a plan to take 18 MHz away from ITFS as part of a final rule on the MMDS/ITFS spectrum allocation (CD May 26 p4). Education groups met with Comr. Abernathy Wed. and hope for meetings with the other Commissioners by June 3, when the Commission has to decide whether to put an ITFS order on the June 10 meeting agenda.

FCC work on a National Programmatic Agreement (NPA)that would streamline permitting new and replacement wireless phone towers is moving more slowly than expected, with a final agreement unlikely for several more months. The National Trust for Historic Preservation filed comments at the FCC Tues. that set off alarm bells among wireless carriers who have been closely monitoring the negotiations.

The FCC has yet to reach a decision on whether Nextel will get the spectrum at 1.9 GHz it covets, or at 2.1 GHz, as part of a 800 MHz rebanding plan with debate continuing within the Commission, Nextel Pres. Timothy Donahue told shareholders Thurs. Donahue repeated, as he had at a Lehman Bros. investment conference earlier this week, that Nextel wouldn’t accept anything but 1.9 GHz spectrum.

Wireless carriers raised strong objections to a proposed requirement that they file information on service outages, saying in comments on the FCC proposal that the filings could harm the national security they're supposed to bolster. But wireless sources told us Wed. they believe the FCC appears likely to impose the requirements regardless of industry objections. Carrier sources also said they worry the filings could be the start of more FCC intrusion in the area of wireless service quality.

NTCA, OPASTCO and USTA late Tues. asked the U.S. Appeals Court, D.C., to reject the FCC’s order requiring nationwide wireless local number portability (LNP), which took effect Mon., largely uneventfully. In general, small carriers view the courts as their best chance to reverse the LNP mandate. The Small Business Administration is expected to file an amicus brief in support of the rural arguments. Oral arguments in the case are set Nov. 18. “The FCC did not consider calibrating its new rule to the economic needs and realities of small business [local exchange carriers],” the groups said in their pleading. “The FCC failed to consider either the disproportionate expense or the minimal competitive benefit that application of its new intermodal porting requirements would bring if applied to those small entities, or whether there were ways to tailor the new rule to meet the agency goals with less impact on small businesses.” The groups argued that the LNP violated the Administrative Procedure Act by adopting a new intermodal number portability rule without first asking for comments through a rulemaking. The 3 parties said the mandate failed to follow procedures required by the Regulatory Flexibility Act. “The FCC hardly confronted and never resolved the basic issues of law and policy that would make intermodal number portability possible,” the groups told the court. “In resolving those issues in the order, the FCC imposed new, enforceable obligations and costs without following the procedures that federal law mandates.”

Groups that hold ITFS spectrum are seeking a last-minute meeting with FCC Chmn. Powell to head off a proposal that they give up 18 MHz of spectrum as part of a final rule on the MMDS/ITFS spectrum allocation, which is being circulated at the FCC for a possible June 10 vote. Sources in the ITFS community said Tues. they were caught off guard by the proposal that they give up bite size chunks of spectrum as part of the order.

The Dept. of Defense released a long-awaited policy on the use of wireless phones and other wireless devices on military installations, saying the devices shouldn’t be used to store or transmit classified information and unclassified information should be encrypted. Wireless phones and other devices wouldn’t even be permitted in areas where classified information is “discussed or processed” without written approval. The policy went into effect upon release.

The FCC has started to circulate a proposal to reform the MMDS/ITFS spectrum allocation, with an eye to a vote at the June 10 meeting. The proposal is viewed as significant since it could open up 190 MHz of spectrum in the 2500-2690 MHz bands for mobile broadband. The FCC has also started to circulate for a potential vote a petition for reconsideration of one section of the Triennial Review Order (TRO) and a rulemaking on the Big LEO satellite band.

Nationwide wireless local number portability (LNP) arrives today (Mon.) under a cloud of uncertainty, with lawsuits pending in federal court challenging the Commission’s LNP order and several states granting delays.