FCC boss urges approving AT&T-BellSouth: sources
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U.S. Federal Communications  Commission Chairman Kevin Martin has proposed the agency  approve AT&T Inc.'s  acquisition of BellSouth Corp.   without any conditions, sources familiar with the  matter said on Friday.
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U.S. Federal Communications  Commission Chairman Michael Powell plans to recommend Cingular  Wireless receive approval to purchase AT&T Wireless Services  Inc. AWE.N with some divestitures, sources familiar with the  matter said on Monday.
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FCC Commissioner Robert McDowell won't vote to break the deadlock on AT&amp;T's $86 billion merger with BellSouth.
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(InfoWorld) - Several lawmakers protested a spectrum auction proposal from the chairman of the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC), saying his plan could limit the number of bidders and raise costs to consumers. FCC Chairman Kevin Martin's plan would require winners of part of theÂ 700MHz band of spectrum, to be auctioned by early next year, to accept any wireless devices, including phone handsets, allowing customers to transfer devices between mobile providers. Martin's plan would also include net neutrality-like rules, prohibiting auction winners from blocking or slowing Web content from other providers. But several members of the House of Representatives Subcommittee on Telecommunications and the Internet, many of them Republicans, questioned Martin's proposed rules, which have support of the majority of the FCC. Representative Joe Barton, a Texas Republican, said he was "very disappointed" that fellow Republican Martin was proposing regulations for part of the 60MHz of spectrum to be auctioned. Some proposals byÂ consumer groups and Frontline WirelessÂ would also require auction winners to provide wholesale access to competitors, and Barton praised Martin for not including that provision. "It's not quite as bad as the Frontline plan, but I don't think it's as good as absolute no-condition auction," Barton said. Many Republicans suggested that auction conditions would decrease the value of the spectrum. Congress has budgeted the auction to raise $10 billion with about half of that going toward reducing the U.S. government budget deficit. "Congress has already spent that money," said Representative Charles Gonzalez, a Texas Democrat. Questions about Martin's proposal came from a handful of Democrats. Representative John Dingell, a Michigan Democrat and chairman of the full House Energy and Commerce Committee, asked FCC commissioners whether the device-portability rules would increase the cost of wireless phone plans. Customers want to be able to take their mobile phones with them when they switch carriers, but carriers generally haven't offered that option, Martin said. "I think the benefits outweigh the costs and concerns," he said. Barton suggested that winning bidders could implement the device-portability and net neutrality proposals without FCC mandate. Google has indicatedÂ it could bid billions of dollars, Barton noted. "Why shouldn't we just let Google bid?" Barton said. "If they've got a better idea, why don't they go into the marketplace and bid their four or five billion dollars?" There's customer demand for device portability, but carriers haven't acted on it, Martin said. Wireless carriers didn't offer phone number portability until the FCC forced them to in late 2003, then millions of U.S. residents took advantage of it, he said. Asked whether they supported Martin's proposals, the FCC's two Democrats said they did, while the two other Republicans said they hadn't made their minds up yet. "Please let me keep my phone and let me take it wherever I want," said subcommittee chairman Ed Markey, a Massachusetts Democrat. The so-called open-access rules are necessary for new broadband competition to challenge cable and telecom providers, said FCC commissioner Michael Copps, a Democrat. The 700MHz auction is the last major spectrum auction on the horizon, many participants said. "This is one proceeding where we cannot fail," Copps said. Some lawmakers suggested Martin's proposal doesn't go far enough. Representative Charles "Chip" Pickering, a Mississippi Republican, called on the FCC to require wholesale access rules as well. Wholesale access would allow new and innovative services to flourish on the networks using the spectrum, he said. Martin's plan would "enhance markets and competition," he added.
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The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has asked the Supreme Court to hear an appeal that could determine whether cable broadband providers can be forced to open their networks to other Internet providers.
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Justice Department urges FCC to deny extension request of Alltel, along with those of AT&#38;T, Sprint.
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AT&amp;T hasn&#39;t decided whether it will bid for the highly desirable 700MHz band because it doesn&#39;t know if it can build a profitable business, given the open-access rules set for the wireless spectrum by the U.S. Federal Communications Commission in July.Calling the rules &quot;interesting,&quot; AT&amp;T&#39;s CEO Randall Stephenson said the company is hard at work crunching numbers and analyzing business scenarios, but hasn&#39;t reached a conclusion yet.&quot;Is there a business model there? I&#39;m not sure if there is or not,&quot; he said Friday at the&#160;Web 2.0 Summit, where he answered questions from conference chair John Battelle and from audience members.The FCC conditions, which include&#160;open-access rules on a third of the spectrum, have been a major source of controversy.The winner of 22MHz of spectrum must allow any wireless devices to connect to the network, permitting wireless telephone customers to use handset devices from other carriers. The winning bidder also can&#39;t block or slow down wireless and Web content from competitors.Some telecom carriers wanted no conditions, while some consumer advocacy groups and Google wanted the FCC to require that winning bidders also resell the spectrum at wholesale rates to competitors, something the FCC didn&#39;t adopt.The FCC is scheduled to auction 62MHz of spectrum in the 700MHz band beginning in January. The spectrum is ideal for long-range wireless telephone and broadband services, with signals that travel up to four times farther than in higher spectrum bands.&quot;It&#39;s a huge opportunity. It&#39;s beachfront property. When it comes to buying spectrum, it&#39;s the best you&#39;re going to find for a long time,&quot; Stephenson said.Data consumption on wireless networks is growing fourfold year over year, so a company&#160;such as&#160;AT&amp;T needs to bulk up on spectrum to keep up with the demand, he said.&quot;It&#39;s very obvious we&#39;re going to have to add to our spectrum holdings,&quot; he said.That&#39;s why AT&amp;T earlier this month reached an agreement to&#160;buy 12MHz of high-speed wireless spectrum&#160;in the 700MHz band from Aloha Partners for $2.5 billion.&quot;It&#39;s the first time, I think, that we&#39;ve ever paid $2.5 billion for a company that had no revenue,&quot; Stephenson said.The Aloha spectrum covers 196 million U.S. residents, including 72 of the 100 largest markets in the United States.In other matters, Stephenson said he was very satisfied with the&#160;iPhone deal between his company and Apple.&quot;I&#39;m not sure I could have asked for much more out of it than what we got,&quot; he said.Asked to comment on the decision to use the slower EDGE network for the iPhone, Stephenson said it was a request from Apple CEO Steve Jobs.&quot;He wanted a broad ubiquitous data network. The EDGE network is the only data network that covers the entire United States,&quot; he said. The situation will improve as AT&amp;T upgrades markets to 3G, he said.Stephenson acknowledged that AT&amp;T&#39;s directory assistance business is being challenged by ad-supported options from Internet companies&#160;such as&#160;Google.&quot;We better get our advertising-supported [directory assistance] model up fast,&quot; he said, adding that AT&amp;T is building such a service internally.On a lighter note, he said he&#39;s &quot;envious&quot; of Google and the success it has had with its business model. &quot;It&#39;s a great gig if you can get it,&quot; he said.(Grant Gross in Washington, D.C. contributed with this story.)
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(InfoWorld) - AT&T Inc. has backed away fromÂ earlier complaints about proposed open-access rules on parts of theÂ 700MHz spectrum to be auctioned by the U.S. Federal Communications Commission by early next year. Draft auction rules floated by FCC Chairman Kevin Martin have "struck an interesting and creative balance between the competing interests" that are lobbying the commission, AT&T said of its understanding of those rules in a statement Wednesday. Just last Thursday, AT&T Vice President Robert Quinn had written the FCC saying the so-called Google plan for open-access rules for part of the auctioned spectrum "would turn the clock back on a decade of bipartisan consensus on the proper approach to wireless deregulation." In addition, open-access rules could expose the FCC "to a reversal in the courts," with lawsuits delaying the auction winner from using the spectrum, Quinn wrote on July 12. The open-access proposals would diminish the value of the spectrum and amount to "corporate welfare," AT&T said. Since then, AT&T has gained a better understanding of Martin's draft auction rules proposal, AT&T said Wednesday. Martin's proposal, as AT&T now understands it, would "allow" the auction winner to experiment with some open access rules, Jim Cicconi, AT&T's senior executive vice president for external and legislative affairs, said in a statement. "The plan would enable the introduction of an alternative wireless business model without requiring changes in the business models of AT&T and others in what is a highly competitive wireless industry," Cicconi added. Google Inc. and several consumer groups have called for open-access rules on a portion of the 60MHz of spectrum to be auctioned. Under open-access rules, auction winners would be prohibited from blocking or slowing Web content from competitors, and they would have to connect to any wireless devices customers wanted. In addition, under open-access rules proposed by Public Knowledge and other groups, the auction winner would have to sell spectrum access to competitors at wholesale prices. Open-access rules are needed to encourage a third national broadband competitor to the large cable and telecom carriers, the groups have said. "We urged the commission not to rely on a status quo approach to the upcoming auction," wrote Richard Whitt, Google's telecom and media counsel, in a letter to the FCC July 9. "Rather, the agency must do what is necessary to bring about robust forms of ... broadband competition." Public Knowledge, a digital rights group, has said Martin's draft rules don't go far enough. While Martin wants device portability and no blocking of Web applications, he hasn't called for wholesale access to the spectrum. Without wholesale access, it's unlikely a third broadband service could challenge cable and telecom services, Public Knowledge has said. Art Brodsky, communications director for Public Knowledge, called the new AT&T position a "remarkable turnaround." But Randolph May, president of the conservative think tank, The Free State Foundation, said he disagrees with AT&T's interpretation of what the auction rules would allow. "My impression (perhaps erroneously) had been that Chairman Martin's proposal would mandate an open access ... regime in the one block [of the spectrum]," May wrote in an e-mail. "There is a significant difference between 'allowing' and 'mandating.' My understanding is that absent a mandate, nothing at all in any existing or proposed FCC rule would prevent the winning bidder from voluntarily adopting an open access business model."
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The cellular services have promised to open their networks, but progress must be monitored, an FCC commissioner says.
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The nation&#39;s top telecommunications regulator said yesterday he will push -- before the next president is inaugurated -- to protect fledgling Internet telephone
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The Internet giant, which may bid for a swath of airwaves, is lobbying for regulations to support a vision that could change how cellphones are used.
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WASHINGTON -- The Federal Communications Commission this week hopes to do what Congress could not accomplish this year -- help AT&amp;T Inc. and Verizon Communications get into the television business faster.
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The $41 billion merger between Cingular Wireless LLC and AT&amp;T Wireless Services Inc. won approval from the Federal Communications Commission yesterday, according to federal sources close to
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The U S Federal Communications Commission may vote on Dec. 20 to make it easier for AT&amp;T Inc. and Verizon Communications Inc. to sell television service, FCC chairman Kevin Martin said.
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Federal Communications Commissioner Robert M. McDowell announced yesterday that he would disqualify himself from voting on AT&T's proposed purchase of BellSouth on ethical grounds, depriving the FCC of a potential swing vote that could have broken the stalemate among its Democratic and Republican...
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Blog: Pair of politicos who pushed last year for strict nondiscrimination requirements for broadband operators are looking to federal regulators to help revive their cause.
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The U.S. Federal Communications Commission this week hopes to do what Congress could not accomplish this year -- help AT&T Inc. and Verizon Communications get into the television business faster.