BROWSING: Frontline
Customer service support for smartphones 4 times that of feature phones, InnoPath says: Surveys 200 execs on data implementation concerns
Mobile operators realize they need customers to adopt increased data services to offset declining voice revenues but are not sure how to best implement strategies to facilitate that, according to a December survey of nearly 200 senior-level wireless operators, conducted by the Economist Intelligence...
Wheeler, Hundt join Obama-Biden transition team: Range of wireless veterans to aid new administration
Major fundraisers who previously were highly influential in the wireless space have assumed key roles on the Obama-Biden transition team, a move that comes amid efforts by the Democratic president-elect to limit the clout of lobbyists in putting a new government in place.Thomas Wheeler,...
UPDATED: Martin details revised rules for D-Block auction
Federal Communications Commission Chairman Kevin Martin unveiled a new plan to auction valuable airwaves to foster interoperable public-safety/commercial communications around the country. The proposal takes nationwide and regional licensing approaches, and retains a public-private partnership approach and advances other reforms sought in the aftermath...
Lines drawn in AWS-3 debate: T-Mo urges delay in comments until it can test for interference
Federal Communications Commission Chairman Kevin Martin is coming under mounting pressure to back off a controversial plan to auction a national wireless Internet license that would require the winning bidder to provide free broadband service, open access and filtering to block obscene content. But...
FCC urged to forgo AWS-3 conditions
Two key House Republicans urged the Federal Communications Commission not to attach conditions to advanced wireless services-3 spectrum and to forgo approval of final rules for that band until after the 700 MHz D-Block re-auction. "We think your proposed rules could repeat this mistake...
What’s the hurry to auction?
The Federal Communications Commission is rushing toward auctioning too much spectrum in too short a period of time and is going to be disappointed with the results. While auctioning 25 megahertz of AWS-3 spectrum and designating a portion of that spectrum for "free" wireless...
Martin to plow forward with free broadband plan: Auction could happen in December
FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION CHAIRMAN KEVIN MARTIN APPEARS DETERMINED to win approval for a free, family-friendly national wireless broadband plan, despite being forced to delay an upcoming vote on the measure after concerns were raised about potential interference to mobile-phone systems and about a content-filter...
D-Block comments begin rolling in: ‘Just give it away,’ argues one exec
THE FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION SET A JUNE 20 DEADLINE for public comment on D-Block revisions, but already the agency has begun receiving suggestions from industry, public safety and academics. Most filings focus on how D-Block rules can be restructured to attract bidders capable of...
MVNO links made, disputed in D-Block
PUBLIC SAFETY SPECTRUM TRUST CORP. Chairman Harlin McEwen has distanced himself from a key element in a Federal Communications Commission inspector general report on the unsettled 700 MHz D Block.The report, which cleared Cyren Call Communications Corp. of any wrongdoing prior to the...
D-Block report sheds new light on players’ plans: Cyren Call planned MVNO over 700 MHz spectrum
Public Spectrum Safety Trust Corp. Chairman Harlin McEwen appears to have distanced himself from a key element in a new Federal Communications Commission inspector general report, which cleared Cyren Call Communications Corp. of any wrongdoing prior to the failed auction of the 700 MHz...
FCC to reassess D Block: Spectrum may be back up for auction by end of year
Federal Communications Commission Chairman Kevin Martin said the agency will at next month's open meeting consider rule changes to the 700 MHz D Block, which failed attract a bidder willing to pay at least $1.3 billion for the national commercial/public-safety wireless license and fomented...
Frontline’s Hundt: D-Block rules were too vague: Public safety: Let’s re-auction this year
A former executive of now-defunct Frontline Wireless L.L.C. said rules for the national commercial/public-safety license that went unclaimed in the recently completed 700 MHz auction were ambiguous and poorly designed, warning that a rush to re-auction the D Block without making fundamental changes would...
D Block: Looking back and moving forward
SO WHAT WILL IT BE for the sequestered 700 MHz D Block? A few tweaks here and there, an approach one lawmaker dismissively coined 'D Block lite'? A complete overhaul? Or something in between?That's the predicament facing the Federal Communications Commission in the aftermath...
Climate change
For public safety, the political atmospherics have changed from what they were just a year ago when federal regulators understandably gave great weight to first responders' suggestions on how to write rules for a national commercial/public-safety license that would go to the bidder willing...
Public safety rallies for public-private partnership on D Block: Lawmakers raise questions on 700 MHz conditions
Public-safety groups scrambled to salvage support for a private-sector funded national wireless broadband network shared by first responders and a commercial entity, following calls by some House Republicans to abandon in the 700 MHz D-Block re-auction that they consider a fatally flawed experiment."APCO International...
Cyren Call: Don’t blame us for Frontline’s demise
Cyren Call Communications Corp. said it never demanded long-term payments as a condition for a winning bidder of the 700 MHz national commercial/public-safety license, breaking its silence in response to news reports and blog postings that strongly suggested that it caused the demise of...
LTE to cover much of 700 MHz band, but deployments still on horizon: Qualcomm to use auction winnings for MediaFLO
The nation's top two carriers plan to deploy Long Term Evolution network technology over their recent spectrum winnings. However, Verizon Wireless executives said an LTE rollout won't happen until 2010 at the earliest, while those from AT&T Mobility pegged a rollout date as far...
Cyren Call: Don’t blame us for Frontline’s demise
Cyren Call Communications Corp. said it never demanded long-term payments as a condition for a winning bidder of the 700 MHz national commercial/public-safety license, breaking its silence in response to news reports and blog postings that strongly suggested it caused the demise of one-time...
D-Block challenges in play despite auction’s end
As for the D Block, which received a single $472 million bid from Qualcomm Inc. in the opening round and eventually fell far short of the $1.3 billion reserve price, the Federal Communications Commission said it has decided not to immediately re-offer the D...
D-Block dustup casts questions on Martin, Frontline, Cyren Call
A coalition of consumer and public-interest groups asked the Federal Communications Commission to probe the 700 MHz auction's failure to attract a winning bidder for the national commercial-public safety D-Block license, an outcome of growing interest to Congress."In particular, PISC asks the commission to...
IT’S OVER: 700 MHz auction ends after 38 days, 261 rounds: Event generates record $20B in provisionally winning bids
It took 38 days and 261 rounds, but the Federal Communications Commission's 700 MHz spectrum auction came to an end this afternoon, having raised $19.592 billon for the U.S. treasury. The haul is a record for an FCC-run auction and nearly double the high...
As auction wanes, public safety weighs its options: Former NTIA Chief says it’s OK that D-Block bidding languishes, other disagree
As the 700 MHz auction winds to a close - apparently without a winning bidder for the commercial/public-safety license or a clear roadmap for meeting first responders' communications needs - progress is nonetheless being made on other fronts.The Department of Homeland Security's Science and...
700 MHz auction slows as bids near $20B: Bidding could cease this week
The 700 MHz auction is all but over, with the Federal Communications Commission increasing the number of bidding rounds to eight per day last Friday in an attempt to speed to a close bidding whose spectacular revenue and open access achievements will likely be...
Auction activity slows: Bids slog past $19.4B
THE 700 MHZ AUCTION, continuing to crawl toward an end likely punctuated by a disappointing D Block failure, will not remain totally within the Federal Communications Communication's province when bidding finally ends. Congress is about to jump into the fray.Rep. Edward Markey (D-Mass.), chairman...