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The Washington Monitor Page 4 ‣ Prohibit base and fixed transmission in the 1915-1920 MHz band. ‣ Require mobiles at 1915-1920 MHz to attenuate OOBE by 90 + 10log P dB within the PCS band (1930-1990 MHz band), and establish a power limit for mobiles of 23 dBm/MHz EIRP. ‣ Prohibit mobile transmission in the 1995-2000 MHz band. ‣ Adopt an OOBE limit of 43 + 10 log (P) dB for base and fixed stations at 1995- 2000 MHz and a power limit of 1640 watts peak EIRP in non-rural areas and 3280 watts peak EIRP in rural areas. Comments will be due fourteen days following publication in the Federal Register, with reply comments due twenty-one days following publication in the Federal Register. Further Notice of Proposed Rulemaking, WT Docket Nos. 07-195 and 04-356, FCC 08-158, released June 20, 2008. FCC PROVIDES PUBLIC NOTICE OF THE PROPOSED ACQUISITION OF ALLTEL BY VERIZON WIRELESS The FCC has issued a Public Notice of applications for consent to the acquisition of ALLTEL by Verizon Wireless. When the FCC and Justice Department eventually act on the proposal the parties may be subject to certain terms and conditions, and will likely be required to divest certain spectrum licenses and business units where the agencies find that competition would be severely impacted by the merger. Interested parties may file petitions to deny no later than July 25, 2008. Issues that could be raised include foreign ownership by Vodafone Group, Plc (an English public limited company), spectrum aggregation in certain markets, automatic voice/data roaming agreements where networks are technically compatible, and exclusive agreements for handsets. Oppositions to such pleadings must be filed no later than August 4, 2008. Replies to such pleadings must be filed no later than August 11, 2008. Public Notice, DA 08-1481, released June 25, 2008. RCA URGES FCC TO MAINTAIN NATIONWIDE 700 MHz D BLOCK LICENSE AND LIMIT ELIGIBILITY OF BIDDERS RCA submitted comments in support of the establishment of a mandatory public/private partnership in the upper portions of the 698-806 MHz band (D-Block) as the best means to facilitate the construction and deployment of a much-needed public safety network. A nationwide D-Block license will simplify the Commission’s oversight obligations that follow grant of the spectrum license and will allow the winning D-Block licensee and the Public Safety Spectrum Trust (“PSST”) to focus their collective efforts on ensuring the timely completion of an advanced telecommunications network that serves the commercial interests of the D-Block licensee and the nation’s public safety and homeland security needs.
The Washington Monitor Page 5 RCA encouraged the Commission to limit D-Block bidding eligibility to entities that do not already have nationwide or near-nationwide 700 MHz spectrum holdings. In the recently concluded 700 MHz auction, Verizon Wireless and AT&T accounted for about 84% of the approximately $19 billion in net winning bids. Sound spectrum policy dictates that the Commission make this final allotment of nationwide 700 MHz spectrum available only to entities other than Verizon Wireless and AT&T. A third nationwide carrier on 700 MHz will offer a needed choice for the public and will increase from two to three the number of potential roaming partners for small and mid-sized rural wireless carriers that depend on roaming agreements to serve customers who travel outside of their regional rural wireless carrier networks. RCA OPPOSES FCC PROPOSAL TO EXPAND ETC DTV NOTIFICATION REQUIREMENTS RCA submitted comments in opposition to the FCC’s proposal to require Eligible Telecommunications <strong>Carriers</strong> (“ETCs”) to provide to all of their subscribers monthly notices about the digital television (“DTV”) transition. ETCs already provide required monthly DTV notices to Lifeline and Link-Up customers. RCA’s position is that the Commission has failed to adequately justify the need to expand the recipient pool of the ETC DTV transition notification, and that the costs to provide monthly notices to all subscribers would far outweigh the benefits. Lifeline/Link-Up compliance costs for multiple RCA members already range from $300,000 to more than $1 million, including all printing, mailing and call center costs. Expanding the recipient pool for DTV transition notices to all of an ETC’s customers would cost exponentially more. Additional costs are incurred in handling the volume of calls resulting from customer confusion generated by the monthly DTV transition notices. Customers of RCA member carriers call member customer care departments asking whether their cell phone is going to be affected by the DTV transition, whether the carrier is going to somehow turn off their television, and why their wireless carrier is providing them with any information about the DTV transition. Customers call their carrier despite the fact that the DTV transition message instructs customers to contact www.DTV.Gov for information about the DTV transition, or www.dtv2009.gov or 1-888-DTV-2009 for information about subsidized coupons for digitalto-analog converter boxes. NEW 700 MHZ BAND LICENSEES ARE REMINDED OF DTV CONSUMER EDUCATION OUTREACH QUARTERLY REPORTING REQUIREMENTS The Wireless Telecommunications Bureau released a Public Notice reminding 700 MHz Band licensees holding license authorizations obtained in Auction 73 that they must file quarterly reports indicating whether outreach efforts have been taken to educate consumers about the transition from analog broadcast television service to digital broadcast television (DTV), and detailing what specific efforts, if any, were undertaken. The
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