Both Frontline Wireless and AT&T have asked the FCC to reconsider their requirements for the 700 MHz auction to be held this January.
Frontline Wireless is urging the FCC to reconsider four aspects of the 700 MHz rules adopted as part of an August 10 Order. According to Unstung, Frontline asked the FCC:
- Reverse a decision preclude small business wholesalers
- Address undue concentration by large wireless and broadband companies
- To lower arbitrarily high reserve prices the Bureau proposed for the C and D Block licenses.
- Confirming the ‘new build’ requirement and clarify the signal coverage for the shared public service network.
Frontline said the minimum prices for two blocks of spectrum are too high. Frontline objected to a reserve price of about $1.3 billion for a 10MHz portion of shared public safety spectrum to be paired with 12MHz set aside for emergency response communications. Frontline said the $4.6 billion reserve is also too high for another 22MHz of spectrum, for which the FCC adopted so-called open access rules.
AT&T wants the Commission to outline the public safety requirements in more detail in advance of the auction. The telecom says that the FCC has failed to provide a mechanism “for the public safety community to disclose the most rudimentary requirements that it deems fundamental” for the public/private partnership. AT&T also wants to ensure that public safety broadband licensees are required to use the technology mandated by the company, and keep from having to make an expensive default payment if “good faith” negotiations fail to produce a public/private partnership agreement.
AT&T and Frontline both filed petitions for reconsideration of the auction rules with the FCC Monday. They were among 10 companies that filed petitions in the last week asking the FCC to reconsider the auction rules it set in July for the 700MHz band of spectrum being vacated by U.S. television stations.
Earlier this month, Verizon Wireless asked the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit to review the FCC’s decision to require open-access rules supported by Frontline and some consumer groups. Those rules are “arbitrary, capricious, unsupported by substantial evidence and otherwise contrary to law,” Verizon Wireless said in a brief filed with the court.
The FCC is scheduled to auction 62MHz of spectrum in the 700MHz band beginning Jan. 16. The FCC set a reserve price of $10 billion for the entire 62MHz, but many observers believe the auctions will raise much more than that.
“We have to find ways of building gateways… so that we always have a common mode that these devices will be able to use across the country,” said Cyren Call Communications co-founder Keith Kaczmarek said during a panel at Wimax World. “Yes, there are obligations to building out the network. But at the same time, there are opportunities.”
Some industry sources fear FCC chief, Kevin Martin, is caving to pressure from Verizon Wireless, reports RCR News. Sources said Martin is attempting to use a different policymaking vehicle—a declaratory ruling—to modify the auction’s open-access guidelines in a way that responds to concerns raised by Verizon Wireless executives at a Sept. 17 meeting with Martin, his staff and Fred Campbell, chief of the FCC’s wireless bureau.
Key industry players are worried Martin wants to water down the open-access conditions outside of the normal public-comment process.
Without federal requirements for reselling the use of their network facilities to competitors, carriers can drive out competitors. When Qwest was granted “forbearance” in Omaha, Neb., for example, it jacked up access prices 72%.
Related 700 Mhz DailyWireless articles include; Apple Considering 700MHz Bid?, DOJ: Net Neutrality Unnecessary, Google “Probably” Bidding on 700Mhz, 700Mhz Auction: Jan 16, 2008, Microsoft Disputes FCC Unlicensed Finding, FCC Hangs Up Free M2Z Service, 2.1GHz for MuniFi?, and FCC Finalizes Rules on 700MHz: Limited Open Access, No Wholesale Requirement.
