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Lawmakers urge FCC to delay contentious actions
Fri Dec 12, 2008 8:26pm EST
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By Kim Dixon
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Key U.S. lawmakers urged regulators on Friday to delay action on contentious items ahead of the transition to digital television, which will likely postpone a spectrum auction opposed by cell phone companies.
The Federal Communication Commission's December agenda includes a plan to auction a slice of the airwaves with a mandate for free Internet, and rules for handling disputes between cable companies and content providers.
Sen. John Rockefeller and Rep. Henry Waxman wrote FCC Chairman Kevin Martin on Friday, asking that he hold off any knotty FCC business and instead focus on the nationwide mandatory switch to digital television signals, due to occur February of next year.
"At a time when serious questions are being raised about transition readiness, it would be counterproductive for the FCC to consider unrelated items, especially complex and controversial items," wrote the Democratic lawmakers, who will chair their respective oversight committees in the next Congress.
The lawmakers did not say which items should be delayed, but the spectrum and cable items are the most controversial on the FCC's schedule.
"We believe that most of the draft items on the agenda for the FCC's December 18 meeting, many of which were already controversial, are now in even greater jeopardy," Stifel Nicolaus analysts said in an investor note.
Many lawmakers fear the digital switch, in which about 15 percent of U.S. households will lose their current mode of television, will be messy, as it puts a burden on consumers to take specific actions, such as buying new converter boxes, to ensure keeping television service.
Signals are being converted to digital to free up airwaves for public safety uses, especially in emergencies.
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The lawmakers said the FCC should refrain from any matters in which "the new Congress and the new administration will have an interest in reviewing."
FCC spokesman Matt Nodine said Martin was reviewing the letter and would discuss it with the four other FCC commissioners.
Cell phone companies, in particular Deutsche Telekom AG's T-Mobile, oppose the auction, saying rules of the auction would permit interference with adjacent spectrum, among other concerns. T-Mobile paid about $4.2 billion for an adjacent piece of spectrum.
Under the so-called Advanced Services Wireless-3, or AWS-3 plan, a bidder buying the spectrum must use a quarter of it to provide free Internet services virtually nationwide.
Cell phone companies say this business model will not work. It is similar to one proposed earlier by start-up M2Z Networks, a group backed by investors including venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers.
Several public interest groups expressed concerns about the plan in a filing this week with the FCC, including opposition to a requirement for filtering for indecent material. Continued...
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