The wireless industry is willing to give up on the remainder of the 1755-1850 MHz band for 10 years if carriers can get access to just 1755-1780 MHz spectrum, T-Mobile US Senior Vice President Tom Sugrue said Tuesday during a meeting of the Commerce Spectrum Management Advisory Committee. The 1755-1850 MHz band has long been a top focus of carriers for reallocation for commercial use, though it contains many federal systems that would have to be moved if the spectrum is reallocated.

FCC Chairman nominee Tom Wheeler outlined his perspectives and priorities Tuesday on the incentive auction and a host of other policy issues facing the commission at his nomination hearing before the Senate Commerce Committee. Wheeler said he would adhere to three governing policies to if confirmed: Consumer protection, competition and predictability. Wheeler said the “ability to know what the rules are, whether the rule is right or wrong ... is far more of an economic incentive.” Wheeler also faced pointed questions from committee members about his views on transaction reviews, USF reform, E-rate modernization, federal spectrum sharing, retransmission consent and net neutrality.

Federal government spectrum users can’t easily be relocated to make way for commercial uses, said NTIA Office of Spectrum Management Associate Administrator Karl Nebbia Tuesday. “These systems can’t just be uprooted.” Government and commercial uses would have to learn to share the same spectrum, Nebbia said in a Washington Post-organized panel. “Sharing is the new reality."

The Department of Defense reached an agreement with the wireless industry to share more detailed information on DOD use of spectrum, DOD Chief Information Officer Teri Takai said Tuesday during a Commerce Spectrum Management Advisory Committee meeting. DOD is the largest single government user of spectrum, and CSMAC members have long complained that a lack of information on the department’s spectrum portfolio has complicated CSMAC work on spectrum sharing (CD Jan 18 p1).

The U.S. wireless industry is once again becoming a duopoly, dominated by Verizon Wireless and AT&T, the Competitive Carriers Association said in response to a May 17 notice from the FCC Wireless Bureau asking for comments as staff write their annual wireless competition report. Verizon Wireless and AT&T disagreed. At issue is whether the upcoming report will be the fourth in a row in which the FCC declines to find that the wireless market is effectively competitive.

FCC Commissioner Ajit Pai urged Congress to “permanently” exclude cellphone firmware unlocking from the provisions of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). The librarian of Congress declined in October to renew a three-year exemption that excluded unlocking from prosecution under the DMCA, meaning consumers who unlock their mobile devices could face civil and criminal penalties. “This is a classic case of the government solving a problem that doesn’t exist,” Pai said Monday at a joint TechFreedom-Competitive Enterprise Institute event. Contract-law rights, including early termination fees, already ensure subscribers fulfill contracts with the carriers, he said. “Adding heavy-handed copyright penalties, including hefty criminal fines, marries the sledgehammer to the fly,” Pai said. Congress is already considering at least four bills that would address the issue -- the Unlocking Consumer Choice and Wireless Competition Act (HR-1123), the Unlocking Technology Act (HR-1892), the Wireless Device Independence Act (S-467) and the Wireless Consumer Choice Act (S-481).

FCC Chairman nominee Tom Wheeler will seek to blunt criticism of his lobbying background in the telecom industry at Tuesday’s nomination hearing, according to a prepared copy of his remarks. He will tell lawmakers that his experience as the head lobbyist for NCTA and CTIA has taught him the importance of encouraging competition in the telecom market, his prepared testimony said. Wheeler is to testify at 2:30 p.m. in 253 Russell.

Nonprofits, tribes and government agencies can seek low-power FM stations Oct. 15-29 in the first such LPFM filing window since 2001, in what Acting FCC Chairwoman Mignon Clyburn called a “unique opportunity.” The time to file Form 318s, which were revised for the window, fits with expectations of nonprofits that back low-power radio, their officials said. Officials from groups including Free Press and Prometheus Radio Project said they and others will work to alert would-be applicants. The agency had been working to hold such a filing window by acting on applications for FM translators that dated to 2003 (CD April 19 p10), said an FCC official.

No one supports a “down from 51 reversed” 600 MHz band plan, as proposed in the FCC Wireless Bureau in a May 17 public notice, CTIA said in comments filed at the commission. CEA offered a similar critique. The bureau also sought comment on a proposal to rely on TDD instead of FDD, which has been proposed by Sprint Nextel. The notice dominated incentive auction discussions at CTIA the following week, and with comments due at the commission Friday, it got little industry love.

"As the cramming problem migrates to wireless bills, and as the transition to Internet protocols for voice services proceeds, even to the expected future point at which traditional landline service based on TDM technologies is eclipsed altogether, consumers increasingly need and deserve equivalent consumer protections regardless of the technology used to provide what is functionally the same voice service,” NASUCA Executive Director Charles Acquard wrote in an ex parte filing to the FCC Monday (http://bit.ly/15db3W8).