Birds/NEPA 1, FCC/CTIA 0

Today, the Federal Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit reversed an FCC order regarding tower siting as being in violation of the proper NEPA standard.

The case caption and introduction are below, followed by a PDF of the decision.

No. 06-1165
AMERICAN BIRD CONSERVANCY, INC.
AND FOREST CONSERVATION COUNCIL,
PETITIONERS
v.
FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION,
RESPONDENT
CTIA – THE WIRELESS ASSOCIATION, ET AL.,
INTERVENORS

PER CURIAM: The American Bird Conservancy and Forest conservation Council petition for review of an order by the Commission denying in part and dismissing in part their petition seeking protection of migratory birds from collisions with communications towers in the Gulf Coast region. In Re Petition by Forest Conservation Council, American Bird Conservancy and Friends of the Earth for National Environmental Policy Act Compliance (“Order”), 21 F.C.C.R. 4462 (2006). Their petition claimed that Commission rules and procedures for approving new towers failed to comport with the National Environmental Policy Act (“NEPA”), 42 U.S.C. § 4321 et seq., the Endangered Species Act (“ESA”), 16 U.S.C. § 1531 et seq., and the Migratory Bird Treaty Act (“MBTA”), 16 U.S.C. § 701 et seq. We vacate the Order because the Commission failed to apply the proper NEPA standard, to provide a reasoned explanation on consultation under the ESA, and to provide meaningful notice of pending tower applications.

Court Decision

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Who said the world is round? Apparently not AT&T Wireless or Verizon Wireless.

When it comes to wireless usage pricing, the world is flattening out. AT&T and Verizon have announced $99.99 (gee, I’m glad it’s not $100!) flat rate ‘all-you-can-eat’ talk plans.

The chief losers here are MetroPCS and Cricket Wireless, as well as the other flat-rate carriers who have found a niche in this sector. Oh, yes, AT&T iPhone users are also losers since the AT&T flat rate plan won’t apply to their phones. Too bad, so sad.

Below is Verizon’s press release, followed by AT&T’s press release

02/19/2008

 

BASKING RIDGE, NJ — Verizon Wireless is moving the industry forward with the introduction of game-changing voice and data plans. The builder and operator of the nation’s most reliable wireless network today announced the immediate availability of new Nationwide Unlimited Anytime Minute Plans. The plans give customers all their calls – anytime to anyone in the U.S., including landline phones – at a flat rate for $99.99 monthly access. BroadbandAccess Plans are also being enhanced so customers now have two choices for Internet browsing, e-mail access and downloading files. The new BroadbandAccess plans, available on March 2, will offer customers monthly data plan options of 50 Megabytes (MB) or 5 Gigabytes (GB) (5,120 MB).

“Verizon Wireless is changing the way customers think about wireless,” said Mike Lanman, Verizon Wireless chief marketing officer. “The new flat rate voice plans truly free customers from the worry of counting minutes, while the new data plan options allow more customers to experience the freedom of mobile broadband. These enhancements are also an acknowledgement that wireless has evolved and more people than ever depend on it as a primary means of communication in every aspect of their lives.”

BroadbandAccess, the company’s flagship data service, allows customers to experience average download speeds of 600 kilobits per second (kbps) to 1.4 megabits per second and average upload speeds of 500-800 kbps, which means customers can download a 1 MB e-mail attachment in about eight seconds and upload the same-sized file in less than 13 seconds. Customers will be able to take full advantage of these speeds with two options: 50 MB data usage for $39.99 monthly access or 5 GB data usage for $59.99 monthly access.

“These new flat rate plans make mobile broadband more affordable than ever,” said Lanman. “The $39.99 plan is perfect for the occasional or light data user, while the $59.99 plan meets the needs of the majority of heavy data users. The plans are easy to understand and give customers the technology they need to manage their lives – both business and personal.”

Verizon Wireless can make this industry leading move because it has invested nearly $44 billion since it was formed – $5.5 billion on average every year – to increase the coverage and capacity of its national network and to add new services. The company was also the first to offer customers a guarantee that pays for equipment and service if customers are not satisfied within 30 days and want to move their service to a different carrier.

“Wireless service is a powerful tool that has vastly changed the way we live. Verizon Wireless decided to take the next step by evolving our plans to meet the needs of customers who depend on our service to stay connected. We have enhanced our pricing portfolio because some customers just needed more freedom for their wireless dollar,” Lanman added.

Here’s AT&T’s press release:

AT&T to Launch Unlimited U.S. Calling Plan

$99.99 Plan Available Feb. 22 for New and Existing Customers

San Antonio, Texas, February 19, 2008

AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T) announced today new unlimited voice plans targeted to wireless users who want the predictability of flat rate pricing for unlimited minutes. The plans will be available to new and existing wireless subscribers for $99.99 a month for unlimited U.S. calling on all devices with no domestic roaming or long distance charges. The plans can be combined with any current wireless data plan to give customers the ultimate in wireless freedom.

The new plans, available Feb. 22, can be ordered at one of AT&T’s 2,200 company-owned retail stores and kiosks, at www.att.com, or at one of the thousands of authorized AT&T retail locations. Existing customers can choose unlimited calling without extending their contract. New customers have the option of a month-to-month, 12 or 24 month contract.

As with other voice calling plans, AT&T customers can choose from a variety of MEdia Net and messaging plans to meet their needs. For example, customers with standard wireless phones* can choose a data plan such as $5 for 200 text, picture, video and instant messages or $35 for unlimited messaging and MEdia Net access.

“We are pleased to offer our customers these great new plans that deliver value and simplified pricing,” said Ralph de la Vega, president & CEO, AT&T Mobility. “This is a highly competitive market and we’re committed to moving fast to meet customer needs.”

AT&T customers benefit from the nation’s largest digital voice and data network, with 3G broadband available in more than 260 major metropolitan markets. The company recently announced plans to expand its 3G network to 350 markets, including all of the top 100.

*Standard wireless phones do not include smartphones or PDAs or the iPhone.

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Starbucks to Serve New Wifi Beans

AT&T will apparently displace T-Mobile as Starbuck’s WiFi provider of choice.

It’s interesting to note that AT&T will give its broadband and U-Verse customers free access at any WiFi-equipped Starbucks, but that’s apparently not true for AT&T’s wireless customers.

AT&T will also provide a flat rate access to its business class customer as part of the deal, and Starbuck’s 100,000 “Partners” (huh?) will get free access at company-owned stores.

Starbucks gets what appears to be an AT&T-managed network to the stores.  This will, no doubt, make POS transaction and ordering information immediately available to Seattle HQ.

AT&T’s Press Release:

More Than 12 Million AT&T, Starbucks Customers to Get Free Wi-Fi Access for a Rich In-Store Experience

New Offering Includes Two Hours of Free Wi-Fi Service Per Day for Starbucks Card Holders Beginning this Spring

All 100,000 U.S.-Based Starbucks Partners to Receive Free Wi-Fi at Starbucks Stores

Seattle, Washington, San Antonio, Texas, February 11, 2008

AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T) and Starbucks (NASDAQ:SBUX) today announced plans to deliver AT&T Wi-FiSM service at more than 7,000 company-operated Starbucks locations across the United States. The initiative brings together two of the most recognizable global brands to create a powerful and convenient online experience for consumers and business customers. Starbucks and AT&T will offer a mix of free and paid Wi-Fi offerings at Starbucks stores to meet the needs of both frequent and occasional Starbucks Wi-Fi customers.

The initiative further expands the AT&T Wi-Fi network, already the largest in the United States, to more than 17,000 U.S. hot spots and more than 70,000 globally.

Beginning this spring, Starbucks Card holders can enjoy up to two hours of free Wi-Fi service per day at Starbucks locations offering Wi-Fi access, while more than 12 million qualifying AT&T broadband and AT&T U-verseSM Internet customers will have unlimited free access to the Wi-Fi service. In addition, more than 5 million of AT&T’s remote access services business customers will be able to access Wi-Fi service at Starbucks locations. AT&T will soon extend the benefits of Wi-Fi at Starbucks to its wireless customers.

“People want to stay connected to their world 24/7, and Wi-Fi hot spots, broadband and wireless make that mobility possible,” said Rick Welday, AT&T chief marketing officer, Consumer. “Laptops and smartphones give us the online mobility we crave, and now millions of AT&T and Starbucks customers will get Internet access free from the comfort of their neighborhood Starbucks.”

“This is what our customers have been waiting for — free Starbucks-quality Wi-Fi,” said Chris Bruzzo, chief technology officer, Starbucks Coffee Company. “Through our new partnership with AT&T, we also welcome their millions of current customers who can now come in and enjoy free Wi-Fi as part of their daily Starbucks Experience.”

As an added benefit for the more than 100,000 Starbucks partners in the U.S., all Starbucks partners will receive free AT&T Wi-Fi accounts allowing them to use the network in Starbucks company-operated locations offering Wi-Fi access.

“Our new relationship with AT&T gives us the opportunity to expand and enhance the range of digital entertainment experiences for our customers as well as our partners, including the continued rollout of the iTunes Wi-Fi Music Store at Starbucks,” said Ken Lombard, president, Starbucks Entertainment.

In addition to the free Wi-Fi access for qualifying AT&T customers and any Starbucks Card holder, customers will be able to purchase tiered access to the AT&T Wi-Fi network at Starbucks at attractive price points. For a two-hour period, customers will pay just $3.99 per session. Monthly membership will also be available for $19.99 per month, and will include access to any of AT&T’s 70,000 hot spots in 89 countries around the world.

AT&T business customers who subscribe to remote access services can also enjoy unlimited, flat-rate access plans at any Starbucks location offering Wi-Fi service or at other AT&T Wi-Fi hot spots.

Additionally, AT&T is providing Starbucks an enterprise-class network with increased bandwidth and redundancy. AT&T’s underlying network technologies will enable a wide range of business applications and help Starbucks stores operate more efficiently.

“Delivering networking capabilities to help a world-class company such as Starbucks achieve greater business velocity is what we do,” said Welday. “Our work with Starbucks is collaborative innovation at its finest.”

The availability of AT&T Wi-Fi service at Starbucks will take place on a market-by-market basis with store implementation beginning this spring and completed by the end of the year.

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Omnipoint v. Nashua, NH: Partial Goverment Victory

In a ruling in the case of OMNIPOINT COMMUNICATIONS, INC. V. CITY OF NASHUA and CITY OF NASHUA ZONING BOARD OF ADJUSTMENT (Case No. 1-07-cv-00046PB, before Hon. Paul Barbadoro of the US District Court in the District of New Hampshire), the City has won it’s summary judgment motion.

From the Judge’s decision:

“Omnipoint Communications, Inc. (“Omnipoint”) alleges in this ction that the Nashua Zoning Board of Adjustment (“ZBA”) mproperly denied Omnipoint’s application for a special exception o construct a wireless telecommunications tower on property ocated within a 220-home residential development known as Coburn Woods. Omnipoint’s complaint consists of three counts. Count I s a conventional appeal from a decision of the ZBA brought ursuant to N.H. Rev. Stat. Ann. § 677:4. Omnipoint claims in Count II that the ZBA’s decision violates the Telecommunications Act of 1996 because the decision is not supported by suubstantial evidence. See 47 U.S.C. § 332(c)(7)(B)(iii). It argues in Count III that the decision violates the Telecommunications Act because it effectively prohibits the provision of personal wireless services to the area that would be served by the proposed tower. See 47 U.S.C. § 332(c)(7)(B)(i)(II). The parties have submitted cross motions for summary judgment with respect to Counts I and II. For the reasons that follow, I grant the ZBA’s motion for summary judgment and deny Omnipoint’s cross motion for summary judgment. “

Case related documents:

Omnipoint’s Complaint
City’s Answer
Amended MEMORANDUM and ORDER

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Earthlink Shutters Municipal WiFi

Coming as no surprise to anyone who understands the true voodoo economics of municipal WiFi, Earthlink is shuttering its existing municipal WiFi networks.

From today’s RCR News:

EarthLink Inc. has officially shut down all operations related to its municipal Wi-Fi projects that hit the skids last summer. Making good on earlier promises, the company is looking for potential buyers after writing down a $20.7 million charge on discontinued operations related to its municipal Wi-Fi assets.

It’s been my view, publicly stated for well over a year, that community-wide municipal WiFi networks are losing propositions. Too many competitors vie in the WiFi space for this low-pay market, and too many competitors (think Sprint, AT&T, etc.) offer higher speed services on their own PCS networks.

Cable opearators are exploring entry into WiFi using their existing cable backbones for back-haul. That makes a lot of sense, and offers yet another reason why municipal governments shouldn’t be in the community-wide WiFi business, even with partners such as Earthlink, Google, etc.

As best I can tell, it’s the municipal consultants, paid bloggers/conference runners, and equipment vendors that are making money in this sector.

I do, however, continue to be a strong advocate for municipal governments providing WiFi in limited or controlled public spaces such as libraries, parks, senior centers, government buildings, etc.

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New Port Richey, FL opens government property, buildings to be cell sites

The opening lines of the Tampa Bay Online (The Tampa Tribune) story from February 7, 2008 tell it all:

NEW PORT RICHEY – It began as a discussion between city council members on limiting telecommunications towers within the city, but it ended up doing the exact opposite.

The city council Tuesday night approved the first reading of an ordinance that will permit the installation of cellular phone towers on most local government and public properties.

It passed 4-1.

While this is an interesting step toward wireless deployment, it’s important to realize that not every wireless carrier can make every site work on government owned property.

To read the full story at TPO.com, click here.

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Plans for the Wireless Blog Development

Here’s a road map to where I’ll be taking this blog over the next few weeks to several months…

  • I intend to start discussions regarding wireless basics for wireless planners. This series will dig into the elements of wireless sites from the aesthetic and transmission standpoints;
  • I’ll be delving into the thorny subject of RF safety, including ways to determine federal (and in some cases) state compliance;
  • I’ll be talking about future issues now coming on to the ‘radar screen.’

I’ll be taking requests to cover specific subjects. You can use the “Ask a Question” link at the top of any page to float your question or idea.

-Jonathan

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Sprint Not Sprinting on Nextel’s Goodwill Value

Sprint Nextel Corp has announced that it may write down as much as $31 billion of goodwill currently recording on its balance sheet. This is due to that fact that Sprint Nextel’s evaluation of the real value of goodwill attached to the Nextel deal is far, far less than estimated.

From the 8K:

“Based on the work completed to date, Sprint Nextel will be Sprint Nextel 8K Notice of Possible Nextel writedown required to record a material, non-cash impairment charge that will represent a substantial portion, and potentially all, of the goodwill recorded on it balance sheet at the conclusion of the second test of the goodwill assessment.”

The write down hit will occur in and be reported in the 4Q08 results.

I’ll bet that things at Nextel are so scary that staff can hear a pin drop. Are lay off notices coming, too?

Attached to this message is Sprint Nextel’s 8K announcement:

Sprint Nextel 8K Notice of Possible Nextel Writedown

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Manchester, Maine Town Meeting result: No Tower

This evening, the residents of Manchester, Maine voted at a Town Meeting to reject the proposed settlement with MCF Communications. At the same meeting, the residents voting also approved a moratorium on accepting new cell tower construction applications while the Planning Board reviews Manchester’s cell tower ordinance.

The likely result is that MCF will continue to pursue a remedy through the courts.

Click Here; to read a Kennebec Journal story on tonight’s proceedings.

For more on the background leading to this point, click on the MCF Communications tab below this message.

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T-Mobile USA: Nearly 30 million customers

T-Mobile USA’s customer count increased by 951,000 during 4Q07. Of that number, 733,000 were new contract customers (as compared with pre-paid customers not on term contracts). T-Mobile ended the quarter and year with about 28.7 million subscribers. That followed a 3Q07 increase in subs of 857,000. The 4Q07 churn decreased to 1.8%.

Deutsche Telekom, T-Mobile’s parent, served about 120 million subscribers worldwide at the end of 4Q07.

BELLEVUE, Wash.– (BUSINESS WIRE) — T-Mobile USA, Inc. (T-Mobile USA), the U.S. operation of Deutsche Telekom AGs (Deutsche Telekom (NYSE:DT)) Mobile Communications business, today announced fourth quarter and full year 2007 customer results.

T-Mobile continues to drive year-over-year growth by pioneering innovation that matters to consumers, said Robert Dotson, CEO and President, T-Mobile USA. In 2007, we increased growth to over 3.6 million net new customers. myFavesSM was a major contributor to this growth, with 5 million customers at year-end using the service to make unlimited calls to the people who matter most to them. Part of this growth was also fueled by the debut of FlexPaySM, a new option in the market that opens up access to more attractive offerings for certain classes of customers. In 2007, we also introduced our revolutionary HotSpot @HomeSM service to rave reviews for how were opening up new value alternatives for land line customers all while we add outstanding call quality improvements in homes across America.

In the fourth quarter of 2007, T-Mobile USA added 951,000 net new customers compared to 857,000 in the third quarter of 2007 and 901,000 in the fourth quarter of 2006. Net new contract customer additions amounted to 733,000 in the fourth quarter of 2007, or 77% of total net new customer additions, compared to 557,000 or 65% in the third quarter of 2007 and 783,000 or 87% in the fourth quarter of 2006. Contract churn was 1.8% in the fourth quarter of 2007, down from 2.0% in the third quarter of 2007 and 2.1% in the fourth quarter of 2006. Blended churn, including both contract and prepay customers, was 2.8% in the fourth quarter of 2007 and down from 2.9% in the third quarter of 2007 and fourth quarter of 2006.

T-Mobile USAs converged device offering was significantly strengthened during the year with the successful launch of a number of converged devices such as the T-Mobile Shadow; the T-Mobile Sidekick iD, LX, and Slide; T-Mobile Wing; and the BlackBerry Curve the first converged device enabled for the new HotSpot @Home service. The fourth quarter of 2007 saw a continued strong demand for these converged devices.

For the year ended December 31, 2007, T-Mobile USA added more than 3.6 million net new customers, compared to 3.4 million net new customers added in 2006. Net contract customer additions in 2007 amounted to 2.7 million, 74% of the total customer additions in the year down from 83% in 2006. Contract customers comprised 83% of T-Mobile USAs 28.7 million customer base at the end of 2007, compared to 84% in the third quarter of 2007 and 85% in the fourth quarter of 2006.

T-Mobile USA will release fourth quarter and full-year 2007 financial results on February 28, 2008.

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