T-Mobile wants a “regulatory guarantee that it can acquire several licenses at the Incentive Auction without any need to bid against Verizon or AT&T,” Verizon said in a filing at the FCC. Verizon took on a recent T-Mobile paper by University of Maryland economist Peter Cramton, which said spectrum aggregation limits in Canada’s recent 700 MHz auction meant a more competitive auction (http://bit.ly/1gVIerq). “T-Mobile is an established nationwide incumbent with a large, multinational parent and a demonstrated ability to acquire the spectrum it needs,” Verizon said (http://bit.ly/P0T3wV). “For example, T-Mobile recently entered into an agreement with Verizon to acquire what it describes as a ‘huge swath’ of low-frequency spectrum covering 70 percent of its customers. And the last time T-Mobile chose to participate in an auction, it dominated the bidding -- spending $4.2 billion and acquiring more spectrum than Verizon and AT&T combined. Dr. Cramton fails to support his assertion that T-Mobile needs special preferences.” T-Mobile fired back. “T-Mobile has consistently supported a one-third limit on the amount of below 1 GHz spectrum any single bidder can obtain in any individual market at auction,” said T-Mobile Federal Regulatory Vice President Kathleen Ham. “Reasonable spectrum-aggregation limits prevent foreclosure, increase auction participation, enhance auction revenues and encourage competition in the marketplace."

T-Mobile CEO John Legere said his company will drop all overage charges for customers. Legere urged Verizon, AT&T and Sprint to do the same. “Charging overage fees is a greedy, predatory practice that needs to go,” Legere said in a Monday news release (http://t-mo.co/1n6Yeu5). “Starting in May for bills arriving in June -- regardless of whether you're on Simple Choice, Simple Starter or an older plan, we're abolishing overages for good.” Some carrier wireless plans are “purpose-built to drive customers over that invisible line into massive overage charges,” he said. “The result has been a culture of fear, worry and surprise every time the wireless bill arrives.” T-Mobile posted an anti-overage charge petition addressed to “wireless carriers,” which had more than 4,500 signatures recorded at our deadline (http://chn.ge/1qX0sd0).

Wireless mic maker Shure said expanding Part 74 license eligibility and database registration as part of TV incentive auction rules “will be critical to professional users as the amount of UHF spectrum available to wireless microphone operations is sharply reduced due to implementation of the incentive auctions and spectrum rebanding.” Shure representatives met with various FCC officials on the rules, according to an ex parte filing (http://bit.ly/1iOJqte). “The Commission should avoid definitions that rely on narrow, inflexible categories such as building dimensions, number of microphones used, etc.,” Shure said. “Given that identical equipment is deployed across diverse user categories, we also suggested that the Commission avoid rule definitions that would identify or exclude productions that would be eligible or not be eligible for a license based on the type of event, such as limitations on non-broadcast, entertainment, religious, corporate, civic and government events.” Venue owners and operators, as well as event producers, responsible engineers, performers and professional sound equipment providers all should be allowed to apply for a license, Shure said.

The U.S. took on telecom deregulation starting in the 1970s based on a single recognition: “We think this market can be competitive and the country would benefit from it,” said former T-Mobile Senior Vice President Tom Sugrue in an interview. “We were basically as a country the first one to do it. It’s not like we could point to a lot of examples around the world. It was a combination of antitrust policy and regulatory policy.” Sugrue, former FCC Wireless Bureau chief and deputy administrator at NTIA, retired Friday after 11 years as head of the carrier’s Washington office. He looked back at his decades in Washington in an interview last week. “Deregulating things that can be deregulated and promoting the conditions for competition have been the consistent theme since I first got involved in the late 1970s,” he said. Former FCC Chairman Reed Hundt used to say the FCC should promote “too much competition” with “lots and lots of providers,” Sugrue said. He noted that when he joined T-Mobile there were six national wireless carriers. There has also been the expectation that “things would shake out” but it was better to start with “too many rather than too few,” he said. For wireless, Sugrue said, the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1993 was really more important than the Telecom Act, which followed three years later. “The ‘93 act gave the commission auction authority, it directed the commission to make more spectrum available,” he said. Sugrue said if Congress takes on comprehensive telecom legislation it should learn from the mistakes of the past. “Everyone was trying to get a lot of detail into the [Telecom Act] to advantage them,” he said. “The bill got laden down with a lot of, I thought, unnecessary specificity.” The most important and longest lasting part of the bill ran about a sentence and said “no one can be prevented from offering any telecom service in the United States,” he said. “Back before that act, we had all sorts of prohibitions. Cable companies couldn’t offer telephone service, telephone companies couldn’t offer cable service, Bell companies couldn’t offer long distance. … The market was sort of balkanized like that.” Sugrue said when he came to Washington, the communications bar was not well regarded. “A lot of work was just grinding out” license renewal filings, he said. “That has changed.” Sugrue said he first got hired at the FCC following the breakup of AT&T when the Baby Bells were putting together their D.C. offices. “There was a huge brain drain out of the FCC at the senior level,” he said.

The administration Friday provided long-promised data on federal spectrum use, through a new website. “Spectrum.gov provides a compendium of federal spectrum use in the 225 megahertz through 5 gigahertz bands -- prime real estate that has prompted the most interest from both federal and commercial users,” said NTIA Associate Administrator Karl Nebbia in a blog post (http://1.usa.gov/1iE95Gj). “It contains information for each frequency band in which the federal government has significant operations on an exclusive or shared basis. Just as commercial broadband providers are facing growing demands for spectrum to fuel the explosion of new wireless devices, federal agencies’ demand for spectrum also is growing. NTIA’s compendium shows agencies need spectrum for crucial tasks ranging from military flight testing to air traffic control to weather forecasting.” The site offers data on a band-by-band basis. For example, a section on the 1755-1850 MHz band (http://1.usa.gov/1ewX9ni) provides such basics as that there are 3,183 federal agency allocations in the band, with the largest numbers tied to air combat traffic training systems (707) and to military tactical radio relay (579). The 24 pages of texts on just that band offer basic information on various systems operated by the Department of Defense and other agencies.

The FCC Wireless Bureau is seeking comment on Grain’s request for clarification or waiver of the commission’s attributable material relationship rule, said a notice scheduled to appear in the Federal Register Monday (http://bit.ly/1ncr0qf). Comments are due April 25, replies May 9. Last month, designated entity Grain asked the FCC for clarity on whether the attributable material relationship rule applies to spectrum transactions in the secondary market (CD March 6 p14). Grain was part of a multiparty spectrum deal involving AT&T and Verizon last year (CD Jan 13/13 p9).

The New York Office of the FCC Enforcement Bureau cited CAM Electronics for allegedly programming a private land mobile station at the 30th Street Men’s Shelter to operate using an unauthorized frequency -- 455.500 MHz. “CAM is hereby on notice that if it subsequently engages in any conduct of the type described in this Citation, including any violation of Section 90.427(b) of the Rules, it may be subject to civil penalties, including but not limited to substantial monetary fines (forfeitures) and seizure of equipment,” the notice said (http://bit.ly/1qGCbru). “Such forfeitures may be based on both the conduct that led to this Citation and the conduct following it."

Wiley Rein said a group within the law firm will provide advice to companies deploying unmanned aircraft systems (UAS), or drones, for commercial use. “These systems promise to revolutionize global commerce as diverse businesses and Internet retailers race to launch UAS as a newsgathering tool for media outlets, a high-speed delivery option for consumer products, and a vital device in search and rescue operations, among other uses,” the firm said (http://bit.ly/1lNms9V). “The Wiley Rein Team is identifying, anticipating, and monitoring the full range of legal, regulatory, technological, and legislative issues that will determine how and when UAS -- also known as unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) -- are deployed in the U.S. and around the world.” Mike Senkowski, head of the firm’s telecom practice, is heading the UAS group. CEA and the Aerospace Industries Association last month jointly wrote the Federal Aviation Administration urging “expedited” action on a long-delayed rulemaking regulating safe UAS use in U.S. airspace (CD March 28 p16).

Verizon asked the FCC to “remove as moot” an agency-imposed condition that Verizon’s voting rights in three wireless partnerships be held in trust. As part of a 2009 merger, Verizon acquired Alltel’s interests in three partnerships holding wireless licenses: Illinois Valley Cellular RSA #2-II Partnership, Northwest Missouri Cellular Limited Partnership and Pittsfield Cellular, Verizon said (http://bit.ly/1jwJqRC). “The condition requiring the voting trust was expressly premised on the fact that a single foreign entity, Vodafone, would hold a 45 percent ownership interest in Verizon Wireless and, through ALLTEL, in the three partnerships,” Verizon said. But in February, Verizon completed its $150 billion deal to buy Vodafone’s 45 percent of Verizon Wireless, the carrier noted. “Verizon Wireless is now owned 100 percent by Verizon,” Verizon said. “In addition, the stock of Verizon is held by a widely dispersed body of shareholders, and no single foreign shareholder owns more than five percent of its stock. As a result, the basis for the voting trust no longer exists.”

The FCC Public Safety Bureau dismissed Sprint’s opposition to a request by Maricopa County, Ariz., for more time to file a cost estimate to the 800 MHz Transition Administrator on its 800 MHz rebanding costs. The county filed its request for a time extension March 10 and oppositions were due 10 days later, but Sprint didn’t object until April 4, the bureau said in an order Thursday (http://bit.ly/1gcCLZb). Sprint said its opposition should be accepted because it provided the bureau “with relevant information that Maricopa did not provide in support of its Further Request for Extension,” the bureau said. “We do not find this argument persuasive. Sprint fails to explain why it could not have filed sooner, and its assertion that this represents a unique circumstance is insufficient to overcome ’the policy of the Commission that extensions of time shall not be routinely granted.'"