CHICAGO-“Spectrum is like money, everyone always wants more of it and you can never get enough of it,” said Mark Kelley, chief technology officer of Leap Wireless International Inc.
It is a widely held theory in the wireless industry. But is it accurate?
This was a key question discussed in various forms at a session on the state of wireless voice at last week’s Personal Communications Industry Association GlobalXChange conference here.
Gerald T. Vento, chief executive officer of TeleCorp PCS Inc., and James Grams, vice president for technology at AT&T Wireless Services Inc., seemed to disagree.
Vento said his company, which is an AT&T Wireless affiliate, only acquires spectrum when it becomes available at the right price in TeleCorp’s footprint-the Gulf of Mexico to the Great Lakes-but that his company’s focus is to stay within budget.
“We have a fully funded business plan and we are very proud of the fact that every time we grow we have been able to say that we have a fully funded business plan,” said Vento.
TeleCorp’s affiliate partner, AT&T Wireless, is not in urgent need of spectrum, so it will be more prudent when it comes time for the auctions, said Grams.
Later Grams told RCR Wireless News that both the personal communications services C- and F-block re-auction in December and the 700 MHz auction in March pose risks that AT&T Wireless will evaluate as it bids.
It is the litigation in the case of the C- and F-blocks-NextWave last week asked the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit to stay the auction and it also has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to look into whether the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit erred when it said FCC licensing decisions were not subject to the bankruptcy code-that AT&T must factor into whatever price it may bid for these licenses.
It is relocation costs that must be factored in when bidding for spectrum in the 700 MHz band. Currently broadcasters do not have to leave the spectrum until 2007 or until 85 percent of their coverage area has digital receivers. Grams thinks it could be even longer.
“The legislation is odd. I don’t think I can predict the date when there will be DTV,” said Grams.
The Federal Communications Commission is aware of the relocation problem with the 700 MHz band.
“There is an uncomfortableness [with the 700 MHz band relocation] unlike [the personal communications services relocation] PCS. … The commission really feels that it cannot force these relocation deals. … The commission is interested in voluntary agreements,” said Kathleen O’Brien-Ham, deputy chief of the FCC’s Wireless Telecommunications Bureau who sat in for her boss, WTB Chief Thomas Sugrue, during the question and answer portion of the panel so Sugrue could fly to Hong Kong.
One of the ideas the FCC had earlier seemed to be interested in-that of holding a separate auction for relocating the broadcasters-seems to have fallen out of favor, O’Brien-Ham said, noting that commenters in a recent proceeding questioned whether the FCC had the authority to conduct an auction that would effectively be for a secondary use of a license.
O’Brien-Ham isn’t the only FCC staffer to have concerns about relocation issues. She told the audience at the seminar about a letter, dated Sept. 1, from Dale Hatfield, chief of the FCC’s Office of Engineering and Technology, to Rep. Billy Tauzin (R-La.), chair of the House telecom subcommittee, regarding the relocation process.
“The success of the DTV transmission depends on the conversion of all of the component elements of today’s broadcast television service to provide and/or support digital operation. … Delays or problems in converting all of these elements can have the effect of slowing progress in most or all of the others,” said Hatfield in his letter released to the media after O’Brien-Ham’s comments.
In addition, Hatfield gave seven specific recommendations for speeding up the relocation/DTV transition process including expedited local and federal approval of DTV towers and tax incentives for broadcasters who build out their systems by 2003.
