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Two Airwaves Auctions at FCC Delayed Until Sept. or Later
WASHINGTON -(Dow Jones)- The Federal Communications
Commission will postpone action on two airwaves sales until September at the
earliest, FCC Chairman Kevin Martin said Friday.
The FCC is still reviewing comments on terms for a second auction of valuable
radio spectrum. As such, Martin said, the item won't be on the agenda at the
FCC's Aug. 22 meeting.
The FCC's first attempt to sell the radio channels stalled over requirements
that the winning bidders team up with firefighters and police departments.
The commission also won't vote on an airwaves sale in which the winning bidders
would have to offer free Internet until after FCC engineers check for possible
interference in adjacent channels.
T-Mobile USA, a unit of Deutsche Telekom, has protested that spectrum sale,
which would require winning bidders to devote at least 25% of their channels to
free Internet access for 95% of the country. T-Mobile's wireless devices operate
on airwaves next to the swath that FCC wants to put up for auction.
Martin said FCC engineers will coordinate with T-Mobile in testing to determine
whether Internet activity on channels next to T-Mobile's interfere with the
company's own wireless Internet services.
"We're going to make sure that our engineers are working closely with the
engineers from the companies that had asked" for the tests, Martin said.
T-Mobile applauded Martin's statement. "We would welcome testing that we
have been asking for all along," said Kathleen O'Brien Ham, vice president
for regulatory affairs Kathleen at T-Mobile.
Last month, T-Mobile sent the FCC a statement from one of its senior engineers
stating that "harmful interference is likely" in T-Mobile devices from
Internet traffic in neighboring channels.
M2Z Networks, the startup that originally brought the free Internet idea to the
FCC, contends that T-Mobile's call for testing is a delaying tactic.
-By Fawn Johnson, Dow Jones Newswires; 202-862-9263; fawn.johnson@dowjones.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
Posted to the site on 2nd August 2008