WASHINGTON-Fixed-wireless carriers last week were praising both the Congress and the Federal Communications Commission for rules they say will help them gain access to federal government and business customers in multitenant buildings.
Congress included language in the transportation appropriations bill that prohibits landlords of buildings with government tenants from discriminating against competitive local exchange carriers.
“Potential cost savings may be jeopardized by building access limitations for telecommunications providers,” reads the appropriations bill. Congress directed the executive branch to “identify building telecommunications access barriers and take necessary steps to ensure that telecommunications providers are given fair and reasonable access to provide service to federal agencies in buildings where the federal government is the owner or tenant.”
The transportation bill has been passed by Congress but has yet to be signed by the president.
Congressional passage of the transportation spending bill came six days before the FCC voted 4-1 to prohibit telecom carriers from entering into exclusive contracts in commercial buildings. The FCC rules only impact future contracts, not current contracts.
“Winstar applauds the FCC for its efforts to bring choice and innovation to consumers and businesses. The FCC has demonstrated an unwavering commitment to ensure that the millions of citizens who live and work in multitenant buildings have the same communications choices and services as other Americans,” said William J. Rouhana Jr., Winstar chairman and chief executive officer.
Winstar’s applause was somewhat surprising since the FCC did not require building owners and landlords to offer non-discriminatory access to rooftops.
Kevin Cavanaugh, Winstar director of media relations, said Winstar was pleased with this step because it “took off the table the prospect of exclusive agreements.”
Access to rooftops may be the next step in the process.
Concurrent with the rules, the FCC is releasing a further notice of proposed rule making that will seek to gather data on building access issues, including access to rooftops.
Teligent Corp. hoped to get access to some rooftops through another provision adopted by the FCC last week that requires telecom carriers to give access to the inside wiring-or rights-of-way-to competitors. Teligent believes some telecom carriers have included in their contracts access to the roof. Teligent hopes the language in the FCC rules will be strong enough for them to gain access to the rooftop even if the original telecom carrier is not using the roof, said David S. Turetsky, Teligent law and regulatory vice president.
The rules regarding exclusive contracts are directed at commercial buildings so fixed-wireless carriers were not given the same access to the nearly one-third of all Americans who live in multitenant buildings.
The FCC action appeared to be a big winner for the real estate industry.
“This decision charts a middle ground that recognizes real estate’s critical role for ensuring tenants have access to the types of telecom services they need and want-without infringing on the constitutional rights of private property owners. The FCC was wise to reject the unsupported pleadings of some CLECs who pressed the agency to adopt a full-scale regulatory regime that might have cost taxpayers millions for the government to administer, created a myriad of unintended consequences and stifled market competition for telecom choice by consumers,” said Roger Platt, spokesman for the Real Access Alliance-a task force of 11 real estate industry trade associations.
It is unclear when the FCC will release its rules and FNPRM on building access. The FCC had planned to vote on the building access issue at its open meeting Thursday but instead voted in private before the meeting. Members of the commission, however, gave glowing statements about the rules. FCC Commissioner Gloria Tristani said the issue should have been presented and voted on at the meeting if members were going to make such statements.
FCC Chairman William Kennard said he was discussing the item because there were advocates in the audience who were waiting to hear what the FCC had decided.
“It would do them a great disservice if we didn’t describe what is in the item,” said Kennard. But Tristani retorted, “The point is that we didn’t describe what is in the item.”
FCC Commissioner Harold Furchtgott-Roth, who voted against the rules, said “there is a great disconnect between what the statute says and what this order does. [It is an] aggressive and imaginary interpretation of the law.” Furchtgott-Roth later issued a statement saying he could not comment specifically on the FCC’s action because it had yet to be written.
FCC spokesman David Fiske said the four commissioners had voted to approve the rules and FNPRM in principle.
Spectrum allocations
In other FCC action, the agency allocated 50 megahertz at 3650-3700 MHz for fixed and mobile applications while grandfathering 20 fixed satellite services. These FSS earth stations are on the two coasts, making this allocation prime for rural use. After comment is received on the service rules, the FCC plans to auction the spectrum.
The FCC also is seeking comment on whether this band can be paired with spectrum at 4.9 GHz. This would appear to be helpful for the mobile industry since it cannot deploy handsets using the 3650 MHz spectrum. Only mobile base stations can be deployed at 3650 MHz.
In a final action by the FCC, the agency said it expected lobbyists who receive non-public documents without authorization to return them to the FCC Inspector General. The rules are directed at lawyers and representatives of regulated entities appearing before the commission. If lobbyists fitting these descriptions choose not to return the documents, they can be barred from lobbying the agency, said FCC General Counsel Christopher Wright. FCC Commissioner Michael Powell will also lead an internal task force to tighten procedures on non-public documents.
The agency has recently been stung in merger review cases involving WorldCom Inc./Sprint Corp. and AOL Corp./Time-Warner Inc. when accounts of staff documents and memos were published.
