August is supposed to be a slow month in the nation’s capital, but even though Congress and the president are out of town there is movement on other fronts. There’s some noise, too.
Didn’t you hear the giant suck-up sound from Dallas, where Democrats and Republicans showed up two weekends ago to kiss Ross Perot’s ring?
Here in town, it’s the thump of legal filings, one on top of the other.
Federal court is frequented daily by people interested in arguing for and against rules governing the PCS entrepreneur block auction. I now see why they say the path to hell is paved with good intentions.
The Supreme Court’s decision in Adarand Constructors Inc v. Pena to roll back affirmative action and the introduction of House and Senate bills to eliminate it, put the Federal Communications Commission’s auction program in a quandary.
PCS auctions may be off for the year, but the FCC could sell some 900 MHz specialized mobile radio permits before 1995 is over. The SMR industry and the FCC are expected to hash out 800 MHz SMR reforms next month.
The Association of Public-Safety Communications Officials International Inc. gets its day in court next February when a three-judge panel examines whether public-safety microwave users should be finessed off the 2 GHz band by PCS licensees. The FCC originally said public-safety users could stay on the band, but later changed its mind. APCO’s opening brief is due Oct. 13.
Also, if you thought the issue of FCC payments for pioneer’s preference licenses was taken care of in the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade bill, think again.
Mobile Telecommunication Technologies Corp., winner of a narrowband PCS pioneer’s preference, filed a brief early this month arguing the FCC lacks statutory authority to make it pay. Oral argument is set for Dec. 8.
Meanwhile, BellSouth Corp. and SBC Communications Inc. say wireless relief granted a few months ago by U.S. District Judge Harold Greene ain’t good enough. They’re in appeals court arguing the 1982 consent decree-which broke up AT&T and created the Bells-does not apply to wireless services.
… Telecom is on the agenda at The Transatlantic Conference in Dublin, Ireland, this week. A congressional delegation that includes House telem pols Jack Fields, R-Texas, Mike Oxley, R-Ohio and Billy Tauzin, R-La. (that’s right; he’s not a Democrat anymore) and Cellular Telecommunications Industry Association President Tom Wheeler, will attend.
… Seems neither CTIA nor the Personal Communications Industry Association will be in charge of doling out IMSIs, the 15-digit International Mobile Subscriber Identity numbers. The State Department will handle it for now and the North American Numbering Plan administrator will later.
… Mickey Mantle, who left his earthly surroundings for the big baseball diamond in the sky this month, is not Oklahoma’s only hero. Mike Synar, former Democratic Oklahoma congressman and Clinton loyalist who was defeated in last fall’s midterm election, is being treated in Bethesda, Md., for brain cancer. He resigned as head of the U.S. delegation to the 1995 World Radiocommunication Conference. A successor could be named this week.
