Policy: AT&T, Verizon react to FCC’s 600 MHz incentive auction plans

Wireless carriers continue to position their points of view in front of the Federal Communications Commission ahead of expected rule making linked to the planned 600 MHz incentive auction.
The latest salvo came from AT&T, which claims that the Competitive Carriers Association, which represents many wireless carriers outside of AT&T Mobility and Verizon Wireless, is trying to change the rules in regards to rules looking to limit participation by the nation’s two largest carriers in the scheduled auction process.
AT&T claimed in a blog post that CCA wants the FCC to not limit its members from bidding on 600 MHz spectrum license even if those carriers control as much sub-1 GHz spectrum as AT&T Mobility and Verizon Wireless. CCA has aggressively lobbied the FCC to limit the participation of carriers with substantial sub-1 GHz holdings, namely AT&T Mobility and Verizon Wireless.
FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler late last month noted that he was leaning towards enacting such limitations in an attempt to foster competition, explaining that “two national carriers control the vast majority of low-band spectrum,” that provides them an advantage and impacts competition.
“This disparity makes it difficult for rural consumers to have access to the competition and choice that would be available if more wireless competitors also had access to low-band spectrum,” Wheeler said. “It also creates challenges for consumers in urban environments who sometimes have difficulty using their mobile phones at home or in their offices.”
However, the possible rule making could also impact CCA members like U.S. Cellular and C Spire, which control 700 MHz and 850 MHz licenses in their core markets that could lump them in with AT&T Mobility and Verizon Wireless in controlling a significant amount of sub-1 GHz spectrum in those markets. CCA leadership recently met with FCC officials and commissioners in an attempt to remove possible limitations on its member carriers, noting that the FCC should delineate between nationwide sub-1 GHz spectrum holdings and localized sub-1 GHz spectrum holdings.
“There is little rationale for putting a small, rural competitor in the same (or worse) position than better capitalized, dominant nationwide providers,” CCA argued in a FCC filing.
Joan Marsh, VP of federal regulatory at AT&T, mocked CCA’s meanuvering on this situation, noting that the trade association got what it wanted, but now wants to change the rules yet again.
“One would think CCA would be cheering from the stands, but they are not. Why? Because the FCC’s proposal has finally forced CCA to acknowledge that there are ‘multiple examples’ ‘throughout the country’ of incidences where their members already have a significant portfolio of low band spectrum,” Marsh wrote in a blog post. “Those members would therefore be restricted under the FCC’s current proposal.”
AT&T last month noted that should the FCC restrict its bidding abilities, it may focus its spectrum acquisition efforts in other areas, thus depriving the federal government of auction-related revenues.
Recent policy related highlights:
—Verizon Communications this week threw in its two-cents worth in terms of the Federal Communications Commission’s plans to craft rules for its highly anticipated 600 MHz incentive auction, which is scheduled for mid-2015.
Having sat out most of the early arguments in the process, Verizon noted in a filing that its regulatory representatives recently met with FCC commissioners in presenting its view of how the auction should commence. Those views seemed to echo comments put forth by rival AT&T, which has argued that rules should not preclude any participant from bidding on any of the licenses eventually put up for bid.
–The FCC last week said it could fine a Florida man up to $48,000 for using a cellphone jammer from his automobile that interfered with first-responder communications.
The agency noted that Jason Humphreys of Seffner, Fla., used a jammer for nearly two years while commuting along a section of Interstate-4. The FCC Enforcement Bureau said it was able to track the interference to Humphreys “by using sophisticated interference detection techniques,” and that it worked with the local sheriff’s office to pull over the suspect. The sheriff officers said their communications with police dispatch was interrupted as they approached Humphreys’ automobile and that they then confiscated an “illegal jamming device.”
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