Unlicensed FM Station Receives $10,000 Forfeiture
Dexter Blake of Mt. Vernon, NY, received a $10,000 forfeiture since Blake did not respond to a Notice of Unlicensed Operation in 2008 or a 2009 Notice of Apparent Liability for Forfeiture (NAL). The Commission had determined that the power level of his station exceeded the allowable unlicensed limit of 250 uV/m at 3 meters as established in FCC Rule Part 15.239, Operation in the band 88-108 MHz. MORE
Category: Enforcement CornerAmerican Petroleum Institute Asks for 30 MHz of Exclusive Spectrum
The American Petroleum Institute (API) has asked that the Department of Energy support their unique communications requirements by recommending that the FCC provide 30 MHz of exclusive broadband spectrum. API states that currently their members are constrained by lack of exclusive licensed spectrum for systems that would provide for benefits in the areas of safety, incident response, effectiveness and efficiency. MORE
Category:14-24 Million Americans Lack Access to Broadband
The FCC, in a response to a Congressional inquiry whether broadband “is being deployed to all Americans in a reasonable and timely fashion, “ concluded that between 14 and 24 million Americans still lack access to broadband. Many of these Americans are poor or live in rural areas that will remain unserved without reform of the universal service program and changes to the U.S. broadband policy. The report concluded that the quickest way to connect all Americans is to reform the FCC universal service program, unleashing spectrum for mobile broadband, reducing barriers to infrastructure investment and collecting better broadband data to assist lawmakers and consumers. MORE FCC Universal Service
Category:Chairman Genachowski Reports Progress on Mobile Broadband
n his update to Senator John Rockefeller on the FCC’s spectrum inventory work Chairman Genachowski advised that, concurrent with the release of the National Broadband Plan, the agency had launched a Spectrum Dashboard giving public access to usage and licensee information, mapping and analysis tools for various spectrum bands all through a single web portal. A cross-agency working group, Spectrum Task Force, has been charged with coordinating critical activities to achieve FCC and NTIA spectrum policy goals. Chairman Genachowski stated that, “Taken together, these actions form the nucleus of a plan to increase transparency concerning spectrum allocation and utilization, and to expedite the availability of spectrum to support the growth of mobile broadband services.” MORE
Category: In the newsSenators Want Spectrum Use and Occupancy Tracking
Spectrum measurements to determine the actual usage and occupancy rates of the nation’s spectrum will be conducted by the FCC and the National Telecommunications Information Administration (NTIA) through the Spectrum Measurement and Policy Reform Act. This is to assist lawmakers and the public in making informed decisions about future spectrum use. Senators Olympia Snowe and John Kerry introduced the legislation requiring greater collaboration between the FCC and NTIA on spectrum policy, implementation of spectrum sharing, more market-based incentives to promote efficient spectrum use and setting a deadline for the creation of the National Strategic Spectrum Plan. MORE
Category: In the newsSenators McCain and Lieberman Say D Block Should Go to Public Safety
Senator Joe Lieberman stated, “It’s time to put first responders first” in his introduction to the First Responders Protection Act of 2010. The legislation would provide the public safety community with the “D-Block” spectrum for a coast-to-coast communications network rather than allowing the FCC to auction the 700 MHz spectrum to a commercial carrier. The legislation provides for directing $5.5 billion in revenue from the auction of a different block of spectrum to support the construction of towers, transmission facilities, and equipment for the new public safety network. Senator John McCain commented, “Our legislation provides the spectrum and funding to first responders, while being fiscally responsible and ensuring local control and conscientious governance.” View Bill
Category: In the newsFCC Will Study Competition in Public Safety Communications Technology
FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski stated that “…proprietary solutions and market dominance play an important role in the problems with interoperability, innovation, cost and competition in the market for public safety communications equipment” in a letter to Chairman Henry Waxman, House Energy and Commerce Committee in response to a June 30 letter of inquiry on public safety communications. In the letter, Genachowski observed that “while a state-of-the-art consumer cellular device typically costs a few hundred dollars, a typical land mobile radio for public safety communications may cost as much as $5,000” and stated that Commission staff expect that “leveraging the commercial mass market could reduce costs for public safety devices substantially – even with such requirements as ruggedizing, many experts suggest that handset costs should be measured in hundreds of dollars not thousands.” The letter also stated that “The current structure of the public safety equipment market may hinder efforts to achieve interoperability for a broadband public safety network” and noted that “…P25 systems still rely upon proprietary solutions and the beneficial effect of competition through open standards is not fully realized.” He observed that the successfully deployed European Tetra standard is “…more spectrally efficient than P25 and significantly cheaper.” Genachowski has directed the Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau to issue a public notice to explore these issues. MORE
Category: In the newsMarketplace 101 …
"I'm shocked, shocked to find that gambling is going on in here!!!" Well if Captain Renault was surprised to learn that there was gambling in the backroom of Rick's Café in Casablanca, apparently so was the FCC to discover that when it allows the marketplace to establish equipment standards, that darn marketplace doesn't always behave the way the FCC might like.
The Commission opted out of the standards-setting business after the initial cellular rules were adopted. It transformed itself from an agency that thought nothing of spending years fine-tuning the technical parameters under which various services would operate to one that "just said no" when asked to pick a technology for a particular application. The FCC decided that the marketplace was better equipped to make those determinations, a conclusion that generally has proven to be correct. It was one thing for the Commission to conduct extensive rulemakings and testing when the introduction of technical advances was relatively leisurely. As that pace quickened to its current breakneck speed, with innovative technologies replacing legacy approaches about as quickly as Lindsay Lohan enters new rehab facilities, the rulemaking process required by the APA inevitably would retard progress.
So the Commission has left that work to the marketplace, in some instances in conjunction with standards setting bodies. But it turns out, as made evident in a recent Q&A between Henry Waxman, Chairman of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce, and FCC Chairman Genachowski, the Commission thinks some parts of that marketplace are doing a better job than others. Consumer marketplace; good: public safety marketplace; bad. Open standards; good: proprietary technology; bad.
While the message comes through loud and clear, the purpose of the exercise is a bit murkier. Why would the FCC or Chairman Waxman or anyone else think that a consumer marketplace churning out hundreds of millions of standardized units operate just like a public safety market that needs a few million highly specialized units? It really is an apples to kumquats comparison. And if the FCC was so concerned about this issue, why didn't it exercise its authority to establish standards for public safety operation? Did it not have even an inkling of how that market was working (or apparently in its current view, not working) sometime during the past decades? And why is this issue being debated now when the wireless marketplace, including the public safety vendors, have embraced open architecture for broadband? Does either Congress or the FCC think it makes sense at this late date to abandon the P25 path in favor of some other route toward public safety narrowband interoperability, and just how much time and money would it take to get there?
The problem with the marketplace is that it isn't a surrogate for what regulators might choose. It has a funny way of producing results that might not have been anticipated, that may be at odds with preferred policies and, sometimes, that even may be contrary to the public interest. But surely neither the FCC nor Congress can be surprised by those possible outcomes. If they want to be absolutely certain that there's no gambling going on in that backroom, then they need to collect the cards, close down the wheel and take responsibility for how the game is going to be played.
Category: Guest Commentary