BROWSING: Policy

Canadian AWS auction surpasses U.S. counterpart

Industry Canada's ongoing advanced wireless services spectrum auction hit a bit of a milestone as the average price per megahertz per potential customer covered eclipsed the 54 cents per MHz/pop generated during the U.S. AWS auction, which was held in 2006. The Canadian licenses...

Worst of the Week: Oh Canada!

Hello! And welcome to our Thursday column, Worst of the Week. There's a lot of nutty stuff that goes on in this industry, so this column is a chance for us at RCRWirelessNews.com to rant and rave about whatever rubs us the wrong way....

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...

FCC may auction another 25 MHz of spectrum: ‘AWS III’ licensee could be required to provide free service

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Kevin Martin scheduled a vote on rules for another major spectrum auction, one that would encompass 25 megahertz in the 2155-2180 MHz advanced wireless services band and require the winning bidder to offer free broadband service under an aggressive build-out...

Google exec claims lobbying conspiracy against white spaces: Device challenges continue to plague initiative

Google Inc. co-founder Larry Page said there are not technical impediments to making vacant television channels - white spaces - available for unlicensed wireless broadband access, but that powerful lobbying forces want to convince the Federal Communications Commission otherwise."I think the debate has been...

Timing the D Block

THE FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION'S ATTEMPT TO REVAMP the 700 MHz D Block could be shaped as much by substance as by timing, with Democrats seemingly in less of a hurry than Chairman Kevin Martin to get the valuable spectrum auctioned before the end of...

FCC to overhaul D Block approach: New legislation would fund PSST

The Federal Communications Commission today launched a wide-ranging proceeding to revamp D-Block rules, an effort that will not only examine changes to the national public safety/commercial license left stranded in the 700 MHz auction but also consider whether the public-private partnership approach should be...

700 MHz: Not over til it’s over: C-Block petitons, D-Block reconsiderations in play

The 700 MHz auction ended two months ago, but you'd never know it.Few things rarely are settled in official Washington. The Federal Communications Commission this week plans to launch a rulemaking to consider changes to the D Block. The national public-safety/commercial licensee was stranded...

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...