Verizon Wireless (www.verizonwireless.com) wants the FCC’s processing and approval of more than 2,200 applications filed last summer by multipoint distribution service (MDS) and instructional TV fixed service (ITFS) licensees to provide advanced two-way Internet services suspended. But the FCC (www.fcc.gov) told the company to forget about it, an action that effectively paves the way for the introduction of new fixed wireless services throughout the United States.
The licensees had filed their MDS and ITFS applications last August seeking two-way broadband authority, with the expectation that the applications would be granted early this month.
In denying Verizon’s emergency petition to halt the processing of these applications, the FCC found that Verizon failed to satisfy the legal requirements that would justify a stay. The FCC also determined that MDS and ITFS licensees would be irreparably harmed if a stay were granted.
Specifically, the FCC's Mass Media Bureau denied Verizon Wireless's emergency petition filed March 28 in Engineering and Technology docket 00-258, asking for the delay. The 2500-2690 megahertz (MHz) band used by MDS and ITFS licensees is being considered for use by third-generation (3G) wireless service providers. The spectrum could provide a great opportunity to deliver high-speed Internet access, for example.
Because MDS and ITFS spectrum is being considered for 3G use and may be reallocated, Verizon argued in its filing that it would make no sense for the FCC to grant these applications.
But opposition from the Wireless Communications Association International (WCAI) (www.wcai.com), the National ITFS Association and others, called Verizon’s attempt blatantly anti-competitive.
“The FCC deserves applause for its prompt decision to permit broadband deployments to move forward by rejecting this outrageous and unprecedented request by Verizon Wireless,” said Andrew Kreig, president of the WCAI, which represents the fixed wireless broadband industry.
Simply put, Kreig added, the Verizon petition is an attempt to delay the deployment of broadband wireless services that would compete against Verizon’s own DSL offerings and that will provide broadband service in areas where Verizon doesn’t make the infrastructure investment necessary to provide DSL.
FCC Chairman Michael K. Powell also wants to see the timely deployment of broadband infrastructure, according to comments he gave last week to the Subcommittee on Telecommunications and the Internet of the House Commission on Energy and Commerce.
Powell told the subcommittee that the FCC will endeavor to promote the growth of a wide variety of technologies that can compete with each other for the delivery of content and will strive not to favor – or uniquely burden – any particular technology.
