Frontline, AT&T Protest FCC Order
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Several wireless firms are challenging different parts of the spectrum auction rules.
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In a Jan. 14 story, The Associated Press, relying on information from Comcast Corp., erroneously reported the company had received letters of inquiry from the Federal Communications Commission. The company received one letter, not multiple, regarding complaints that it actively interferes with its subscribers' Internet traffic.
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The federal government is challenging an appeals court ruling that, officials fear, would stifle the expansion of cable broadband services by burdening the providers with new regulations.
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Web radio broadcasters go off air in protest at plans to hike royalty payments when music is played online.
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The debate heats with some tech companies pushing Congress and the FCC to restrict spectrum use in latest auction.
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Blog: The latest front in Webcasters' protest of elevated royalty fees is a "day of silence," and some larger stations are expected to participate.
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Most analog cellular networks in the U.S. will be shut down on Monday, following a longtime FCC plan.
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Verizon Wireless has sued the F.C.C., seeking to overturn auction rules requiring the buyers of some airwaves to make their networks compatible with any device.
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A broadband provider prevented customers from using its service, company says.
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(InfoWorld) - A plan to have private investors build a national wireless broadband network for police and fire departments met resistance at a U.S. Senate hearing Thursday, including from the man in charge of New York's emergency broadband network. Startup Frontline Wireless, backed by two former U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC)Â chairmen and several tech industry heavyweights, would set aside 22MHz of wireless spectrum from an upcoming auction of the 700MHz band for a dual-use commercial and emergency response network with the winning bidder required to build a nationwide network that would give priority to police and fire departments. A national broadband network for emergency response agencies would take billions of dollars to build, and a public-private partnership like the one Frontline has proposed is the only way it will happen, said James Barksdale, president and CEO of investment group Barksdale Management and a partner in Frontline. The U.S. government lacks the money to build the network, he said. "We're not asking agencies to give us the spectrum," Barksdale said. "And public safety gets a free ride on it -- that's a heck of a deal." Six years after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on the U.S. and two years after Hurricane Katrina, emergency response agencies across the U.S. still do not have broadband networks that allow agencies to talk to each other, said Barksdale, former CEO of Netscape. "The FCC can achieve, at no cost to taxpayers, an interoperable public safety network that, I submit to you, will never be built if we don't do it this way," Barksdale told the Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee. "We are long past the time to talk about what might happen or should happen or is going to happen for public safety. Any serious proposal must address how this costly network will be funded and built without relying on government funds." But several people at the hearing, including Paul Cosgrave, commissioner of the New York City Department of Information Technology and Telecommunications, questioned the Frontline plan. New York has already built a $500 million emergency network that will roll out fully in early 2008, and the Frontline proposal could take away local control of emergency communications networks, he said. Spectrum that's optimal to use for emergency communications in New York may not work for Boise, Idaho, he said. "A national network, based on a one-size-fits-all approach, may not meet the disparate communication needs of emergency responders throughout the country," Cosgrave said. In addition, if emergency responders must share spectrum with commercial providers, the network may be jammed during disasters, Cosgrave said. The proposed network will be "dominated by commercial interests, and deployment and maintenance will be undertaken based on return on investment rather than effective emergency response," he added. The Frontline plan would take 10MHz from 60MHz scheduled to be auctioned by early next year and pair it with 12MHz of spectrum out of 24MHz set aside for public safety. The 84MHz of spectrum is becoming available after Congress voted early last year to require U.S. television stations to abandon the spectrum and move from analog to all-digital broadcasts. The deadline for the transition to digital TV is in February 2009. Under the Frontline plan, the winner of the auction for the 22MHz would be required to build a national broadband network, estimated by Barksdale to cost $12 billion. The network operator could then collect wholesale fees from emergency response agencies and from commercial telecoms that want to use the spectrum to provide broadband services. Frontline is also asking the FCC to create rules that would require the winner of the 22MHz chunk of spectrum to resell access to any customer that can pay. Several consumer groups and tech companies have also called for open access provisions for part of the auctioned spectrum, saying it represents the best chance for a new national broadband provider that would compete with cable and telecom company offerings. The FCC is expected to set service rules on the spectrum to be auctioned within weeks. Representatives of two wireless carriers told the committee they oppose open access rules in the auction. Dick Lynch, executive vice president and CTO at Verizon, suggested open access and net neutrality rules called for by several groups would limit the appeal of the spectrum and drive down the cost the U.S. government receives in the auction. The auction is expected to raise at least $10 billion with many observers suggesting much more money will be bid. "The auction must make the spectrum available in ways that will promote, not cripple, broadband deployment," Lynch said. [Open access and other] requirements are unwarranted, would deter innovation, and would not benefit consumers." Senator Ted Stevens, an Alaska Republican, also questioned the Frontline plan, saying the proposal doesn't address how local police and fire departments will pay for handsets and other equipment used to access the network. The best way to raise money for public safety equipment is to maximize the value of the spectrum at auction, he said. "There's no reason this [spectrum] shouldn't go into the private sector and be profitable, too," he said. Several Democratic senators and Wanda McCarley, president of the Association of Public-Safety Communications Officials International, were more receptive of the Frontline plan. The proposal includes many ideas that many emergency response officials want, McCarley said. "With this auction we stand at a crossroads," added Senator John Kerry, a Massachusetts Democrat. "Either we can provide extraordinary benefits to millions of Americans, or we can tilt the broadband policy to improve the already significant position of the powerful few that deliver this service. I think there's a clear path that we have to take -- the airwaves belong to the American people."
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WASHINGTON (CBS.MW) -- Federal regulators have fined Sprint and AT&amp;T for refusing full service to some customers with poor credit, saying the companies failed to notify them of their consumer rights.
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Large and small U.S. webcasters turned off the music today to protest planned royalty rate increases that small Net Radio station owners say could put them out of business.
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(InfoWorld) - A coalition of technology and telecommunications vendors will oppose a plan to give public safety agencies across the U.S. new wireless spectrum, saying it could jeopardize an agreement already in place that would provide spectrum for interoperable emergency communications by early 2009. Members of the High Tech DTV Coalition on Tuesday sent a letter to leaders in the U.S. Congress urging them to reject a proposal that would carve out 30MHz of wireless spectrum for public safety interoperability, instead sticking to legislation passed last year that would give emergency response agencies 24MHz of spectrum. The legislation requires U.S. television stations to move from analog broadcasts to digital television, or DTV. The alternate plan, advanced by Cyren Call Communications, could endanger the compromises in the Digital Television Transition Act, representatives of the High Tech DTV Coalition said at a press conference. Debate over the Cyren Call proposal, echoed in a January proposal from Senator John McCain, could push back by years the date when spectrum is available to emergency responders, said the coalition, whose members include Microsoft, Intel, Dell, and Verizon Wireless. The Cyren Call proposal would take a significant chunk of spectrum slated to be auctioned by the government, with the $10 billion or more in proceeds going for federal deficit reduction and emergency communications interoperability programs, the group said. "We think [the proposal] threatens the progress Congress made last year," said Jeffrey Connaughton, executive director of the coalition. "It's a distraction from what are better solutions for public safety." The High Tech DTV Coalition lobbied hard last year for a bill that frees up spectrum for public safety uses by requiring TV broadcasters to move off the upper 700MHz spectrum band by Feb. 17, 2009. After much debate in Congress, President George Bush signed the bill a year ago. The DTV transition bill represented a fragile compromise, said Jeffrey Eisenach, chairman of Criterion Economics and co-author of a report criticizing the Cyren Call plan. "It would throw, at best, sand in the gears of a process that's been going on for a long time," he said. "I don't think there's a way to unwind this and put it back together simply." The Cyren Call proposal, first advanced last April, calls on the U.S. Federal Communications Commission to put 30MHz of spectrum into a "public safety broadband trust" controlled by the agency. The spectrum would be used for commercial purposes after police, fire, and other public safety agencies' needs are met. Representatives of Cyren Call and McCain didn't immediately respond to requests for comment on the High Tech DTV Coalition. But McCain, an Arizona Republican, called for the government to do more to help emergency responders when he announced plans for public safety spectrum legislation in January. "If we do not act now, this valuable spectrum will be auctioned off, and this opportunity will be lost forever," McCain said in a statement. McCain has been calling for more public safety spectrum since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the U.S. The 9/11 Commission investigating the attacks and their aftermath recommended additional radio spectrum for first responders because police and firefighters on the scene reported being unable to communicate with each other or with rescue vehicles. The Cyren Call proposal has been endorsed by several public safety organizations, including the International Association of Chiefs of Police, International Association of Fire Chiefs, Major Cities Chiefs Association, and National Sheriffs Association.
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The maverick network service provider run by former Netscape CEO Jim Barksdale, and that was largely responsible for convincing the US Federal Communications Commission to impose new and innovative rules for bidders on certain blocks of the 700 MHz UHF spectrum, is now saying it may not be able to bid after all. In a formal complaint to the FCC filed Monday, lawyers for Frontline Wireless accused the FCC of "getting it wrong" by having set the asking price of the choicest blocks in the auction too high.
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Political opposition to the merger of satellite radio providers XM and Sirius increased on Wednesday, as the chair of the Senate antitrust committee sent a letter to both the FCC and Justice Department opposing the deal.
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InfoWorld - A coalition of technology and telecommunications vendors will oppose a plan to give public safety agencies across the U.S. new wireless spectrum, saying it could jeopardize an agreement already in place that would provide spectrum for interoperable emergency communications by early 2009.
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Failing to raise the $14 billion needed to bid in government auctions of wireless spectrum later this month, Frontline Wireless has left.