AWS Licenses Hinge on Wireless Bureau Resources, Advisors Say
The timeline for granting AWS spectrum licenses depends on Wireless Bureau resources, a bipartisan panel of wireless advisors to FCC commissioners said Thurs. at an FCBA Telecom Practice Committee lunch. The 3 advisors -- 2 of 5 originally enlisted bowed out -- described wireless issues expected to be primary for their bosses in the coming year: AWS, early termination fees, 800 MHz rebanding, the WARN Act and preemption.
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An overworked Wireless Bureau wants to grant licenses, and will, given time and manpower, Barry Ohlson, wireless advisor to Comr. Adelstein, said: “It will boil down to resources… There’s no incentive to hold it up.”
Wireless aides to Comrs. Copps and McDowell agreed. The Wireless Bureau is “very taxed… and we're working hard” on pressing issues, said Angela Giancarlo, McDowell’s advisor. Copps aide Bruce Gottlieb said the issue obviously matters. “We're moving ahead quickly” because so many players want in on the wireless broadband space, and AWS licenses will be an essential step in boosting wireless competition, he said.
Emergency spectrum issues like the WARN Act also have high priority at the FCC, advisors said, disagreeing on how much is getting done. Giancarlo said her office has spent much time on the issues “trilogy": public safety, 700 MHz, and guard band. The FCC is “well aware of the President’s memorandum” on the Emergency Alert System and is recruiting committee members, she said. Ohlson said many meetings have occurred, with scant action on deadline-setting. The WARN Act created a “procedural structure” for a national alert system, but “the hard issues” haven’t been resolved, Gottlieb said.
Wireless in particular would be largely immune to change should the Democrats retake the House and/or Senate, advisors agreed. “Things change” but percentage-wise, fewer change in wireless, which is dominated at the policy level by non- partisan questions of good governance and spectrum allocation, Gottlieb said, with Giancarlo agreeing. “I don’t know if it would change much,” she said. Ohlson said no matter what the state of Congress after Nov. 7, “there will ultimately be a 3-2 majority, for the time being.”