Today’s Federal Communications Commission meeting has been delayed as the five commissioners sought to finalize conditions for Verizon Wireless’s acquisition of Alltel.

The FCC meeting was scheduled to begin at 1100 ET (1600 GMT) but had not yet begun at 1430 ET (1930 GMT). FCC Chairman Kevin Martin told reporters that the other four commissioners were likely discussing what roaming conditions to put on the Verizon deal. Martin has proposed requiring Verizon and Altell to keep existing roaming agreements for two years.

The agency was scheduled to vote on Verizon Wireless’s $28 billion acquisition of Alltel, a rural wireless provider, and on Sprint Nextel’s $14.5 billion deal with Clearwire and cable operators Comcast and Time-Warner. Clearwire CEO Ben Wolff says “Everyone understands it’s a pro-competitive deal.”

Clearwire has said the joint venture should have service in the top 100 markets in the U.S. by the end of 2010, deploying as many as 37,000 cell sites. There are more than 480 client devices for mobile WiMax under development, Wolff said, and any certified WiMax device will be allowed on New Clearwire’s network.

Both merger proposals are expected to be approved, but with FCC-imposed conditions. A decision regarding “white spaces” is also expected today.

UPDATE: The FCC has approved the Verizon/Alltel merger and Sprint Nextel’s proposed joint venture with Clearwire.

• Verizon agreed to keep its roaming rates the same for the next four years as part of a compromise. The FCC said Verizon Wireless, owned by Verizon Communications and Vodafone Group, could go ahead with its Alltel purchase as long as it divests airwaves in 105 markets.
• In a 5-0 vote, the Commission approved the plan to combine Sprint’s Xohm network with Clearwire’s WiMax-like network.
• The Federal Communications Commission today voted to allow technology companies to produce “white spaces” devices (pdf), that will operate on unused 6 MHz television channels.
  Martin Statement: Word | Acrobat
  Copps Statement: Word | Acrobat
  Adelstein Statement: Word | Acrobat
  Tate Statement: Word | Acrobat
  McDowell Statement: Word | Acrobat

Opponents like Shure say the order will reduce the amount of clear spectrum available for use by professional audio equipment. Final text of the rules is not yet available.

The Commission said it will closely oversee and monitor the introduction of TV white space
devices. “The Commission will act promptly to remove from the market any equipment found to
be causing harmful interference and will require the responsible parties to take appropriate
actions to remedy any interference that may occur”.

Be Sociable, Share!

• 

Posted by Sam Churchill on Tuesday, November 4th, 2008 at 12:27 pm.