Under intense scrutiny and lobbying, Nov. 4 FCC vote moves forward: Mergers, USF reform, white spaces remain hot-button topics

So far, despite massive lobbying over scheduled Nov. 4 votes on white spaces, wireless mergers, the universal service fund and intercarrier-compensation reforms, Federal Communications Commission Chairman Kevin Martin has yet to blink.
The FCC last night released the official agenda for the Nov. 4 meeting, with votes set on allowing unlicensed devices in TV white spaces, the Verizon Wireless-Alltel Communications L.L.C. and Sprint Nextel Corp.-Clearwire Corp. deals and everything else pushed by Martin in his waning tenure as FCC chairman.
Lobbying has intensified as theFCC vote nears.
While the public release of an FCC agenda triggers a quiet period that effectively halts lobbying on items up for vote, the agency waived the rule such that broadcasters, musicians, professional sports leagues, Broadway theater and religious groups, lawmakers and high-tech giants can continue to argue for and against the white spaces item through the end of Friday. That is the same day – Oct. 31 – that House Commerce Committee Chairman John Dingell (D-Mich.) expects answers from Martin on questions sent late last week on the regulatory process underlying the FCC chief’s support for permitting Wi-Fi and other unlicensed devices in vacant broadcast spectrum and on why a licensing approach in white spaces was not embraced. The mobile-phone industry backs a licensing scheme for TV white spaces.
Given the avalanche of lobbying and because negotiation among FCC members will continue in coming days, the possibility for changes to Nov. 4 meeting agenda remains.
Broadcasters and the eclectic collection of high-profile wireless microphone users want the FCC to seek public comment on an agency report that concluded unlicensed devices can operate in TV white spaces without causing interference to others.
“I understand that legitimate questions have been raised about the conclusions drawn from the report issued by the FCC’s Office of Engineering and Technology, which is the basis for the FCC’s draft order,” Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) said in a letter to Martin. “Given the indispensable role that wireless technologies have for New York’s industries – whether they are wireless microphones for our Broadway performers or for the players and coaches of the Buffalo Bills, New York Jets and Super Bowl Champion New York Giants – I believe that these interference questions should be addressed first.”
Other lawmakers also have urged the FCC to remove the white spaces item from the Nov. 4 agenda, while others favor FCC action next Tuesday.
“The broadband potential offered by the white spaces remains too great an opportunity for there to be any further delay in concluding the proceeding and allocating the spectrum for unlicensed broadband uses,” stated Reps. Jay Inslee (D-Wash.), Nathan Deal (R-Ga.), Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.), Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.), Mike Rogers (R-Mich.) and Anna Eshoo (D-Calif.). “We are simply at a point in time in which we can no longer squander any available broadband opportunities. The commission must take the next steps to make this spectrum available to our innovators to deliver new and interesting broadband opportunities to all consumers including those that live in underserved and rural areas.”
Moreover, Microsoft Corp. Chairman Bill Gates, Google Chairman Eric Schmidt, Dell Inc., Chairman Michael Dell and the Technology CEO Council have weighed in to advocate for adoption of final white spaces guidelines.
Martin’s white spaces plan would allow higher power limits for devices employing spectrum sensing and geo-location/database technologies than for those with only spectrum sensing capabilities. In addition, Martin would require FCC certification of white spaces devices as a safeguard against potential interference to digital TV signals.
Merger considerations
Elsewhere, MetroPCS Communications, Leap Wireless International Inc., NTELOS Communications Group Inc., the Rural Telecommunications Group and the Rural Cellular Association submitted to the FCC a consensus position on roaming conditions they want attached to the proposed $28.1 billion Verizon Wireless-Alltel transaction. Verizon Wireless has offered to honor roaming agreements Alltel has with other wireless carriers and to divest up to 100 markets.
Regional and rural wireless carriers and their trade associations want, among other things, the FCC to extend Alltel and Verizon roaming agreements to either seven years or the term of any existing accord between the parties, whichever is longer. They also want the FCC to confirm that Verizon Wireless roaming commitments apply to all non-national carriers and to require that Alltel’s GSM networks be supported for seven years at the same technical and operational standards as Verizon maintains other networks and services in the same market.