Verizon Lawsuit Looms Over DTV Transition
By Ted Hearn -- Multichannel News, 9/13/2007 11:07:00 AM
Washington – Verizon Wireless has gone to court seeking to overturn Federal Communications Commission rules for an upcoming auction that is expected to bring in at least $10 billion, $1.5 billion of which has been earmarked to help consumers purchase digital converters when analog TV shuts off in early 2009.
Verizon Wireless is balking at rules strongly endorsed by FCC chairman Kevin Martin and partly supported by Google that would require an auction winner to build a network that accommodated any radio device and permitted consumers to freely download applications.
Martin, over the objections of FCC Republican Robert McDowell, negotiated the open-network rules with the agency’s two Democratic members. The regulatory mandates were designed to counter what some consider a closed wireless phone and broadband market dominated by AT&T and Verizon Wireless.
Verizon Wireless filed an appeal Sept. 10 in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, the judicial venue of many disputes involving the FCC and its regulated entities.
Verizon has not sought a stay to prevent the auction from starting on Jan. 16, 2008.
Auction revenue will be dedicated to the DTV converter box program to help millions of consumers keep their analog TVs running after the Feb. 17, 2009 cutoff of over-the-air analog broadcasting. If Verizon’s suit somehow delays the DTV transition, the federal government might not be able to turn over 24 MHz of spectrum to first responders for improved wireless communications.
In its short, three-page appeal, Verizon said the rules exceeded the FCC's authority and were arbitrary and capricious.
“Verizon’s lawsuit throws a wrench into the auction to promote competition and innovation for consumers through open access and give public safety an interoperable, national network. Verizon is challenging the FCC for doing what Congress required it to do in the first place – ensure that auction policy is guided solely by the public interest,” Frontline Wireless, a probably auction bidder, said in a statement. “It is also baffling that Verizon would file this challenge because, under anti-trust precedent, it would not be able to hold this spectrum.”
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