BROWSING: Policy

Verizon Wireless: Google’s open-access complaint is ‘sour grapes’

Verizon Wireless is downplaying a Google Inc. effort to have the Federal Communications Commission extract an explicit commitment from the No. 2 cellular carrier that it will adhere to open-access requirements governing a nationwide collection of regional C-Block licenses won at the 700 MHz...

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...

Supreme distinction, outcome

The U.S. Supreme Court without comment declined to review a Tenth Circuit ruling that said the trustee of bankrupt Magnacom Wireless L.L.C. is not entitled to proceeds from the re-auction of the company's cancelled wireless licenses.Magnacom paid nearly $48 million for 13 F-Block personal...

Qualcomm to bid on U.K. spectrum: Firm doesn’t plan to launch commercial service

Fresh off a handful of license wins in the 700 MHz auction last month in the United States, Qualcomm Inc. is now eyeing spectrum in Britain, yet the company says it is not interested in becoming an operator in that country."Qualcomm does not intend...

Dish to test satellite-based mobile TV service using 700 MHz spectrum: Alcatel-Lucent to provide DVB-SH network kit

Dish Network Corp. isn't wasting time as it considers what technology might be the best fit for spectrum it recently won in the 700 MHz auction. The company partnered with Alcatel-Lucent to test DVB-SH mobile TV broadcast technology with equipment, tools and training provided...

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...

Legislation eyes auction of family-friendly spectrum

Reps. Anna Eshoo (D-Calif.) and Christopher Cannon (R-Utah) introduced a bill to foster deployment of a national, family-friendly wireless broadband network with open access, an initiative the mobile-phone industry was quick to pounce on.The Wireless Internet Nationwide for Families Act, which includes components of...

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...

Lawmakers reconsider in wake of 700 MHz auction: Some call for D-Block conditions to be removed

While the Federal Communications Commission's failure to attract a bidder for a national commercial-public safety spectrum license dominated a House telecom subcommittee hearing today, the panel's review of the 700 MHz auction also served as a platform for addressing other major wireless policy issues.Indeed,...

Hedgehogging: hedge*hog*ging v. Interrupting conversations in an office environment by poking your head over the top of the cube.

Our favorite country to the North, Canada, is going to have its own spectrum auction next month. We can't wait! Will Google play? Will bidders shell out billions to build 3G networks and then find uptake is slow and beg the government for relief?...

700 MHz to be LTE heavy: AT&T Mobility, VZW announce LTE plans for highly touted spectrum

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...

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...

700 MHz trial balloon

Telecom policymakers and special-interest groups are fond of talking about ubiquity, making sure communications -- wireless, wireline, Internet and video -- are within reach of all Americans. Indeed, there are government subsidy programs that address this very issue. Take the stressed universal service regime...

The Q&A: Richard Lowe

Richard Lowe is president of carrier networks at Nortel Networks Inc. The Carrier Networks group, which is Nortel's largest division, includes a large portfolio of mobility and converged solutions including CDMA, GSM, VoIP/IMS, WiMAX/4G. Q: It seems the infrastructure market has experienced some turbulence...

Mobile TV space looks for growth in 2008

Mobile television is all over the place, yet going nowhere fast all at the same time. Consumer choice for TV and video on their cellphones is pretty robust, but that's only if they know it even exists.Sure, mobile TV and video usage is growing...

FCC’s McDowell argues for lighter regulatory touch: 700 MHz results show the big getting bigger

HOLLYWOOD, Calif. -- With results from the Federal Communications Commission's 700 MHz auction now public, Commissioner Robert McDowell said one thing stands out: large, deep-pocketed companies squeezed smaller (and in some cases newer) players out of the process -- despite government mandates that were...

700 MHz auction ends: Wireless heavyweights biggest players, others surprise

Verizon Wireless and AT&T Mobility ran the table at the 700 MHz auction, accounting for most of the record $19.6 billion in bidding that broke historic ground on open access, lost ground on public safety and gave dozens of mostly white-male-owned small businesses a...

700 MHz: Industry takes stock as dust clears

Verizon Wireless and AT&T Mobility ran the table at the 700 MHz auction, accounting for most of the record $19.6 billion in bidding that broke historic ground on open access, lost ground on public safety and gave dozens of mostly white-male-owned small businesses a...

Verizon Wireless, AT&T Mobility on top in 700 MHz auction results: Google leaves event empty-handed

Verizon Wireless and AT&T Mobility won the vast majority of the 700 MHz spectrum up for grabs during the Federal Communications Commission's recently completed auction. Verizon Wireless was the event's biggest spender, doling out $9.63 billion (fully half of the almost $20 billion in...

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...

In auction’s aftermath, D Block questions linger

With the close of a 700 MHz auction whose mixed results still remain largely unknown, the spotlight now shifts to how policymakers at the Federal Communications Commissions and Congress will respond to a national commercial-public safety license left to languish after 38 days and...

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...