FCC commissioner makes friends at WCA

New FCC Commissioner Kathleen Abernathy didn’t waste any time winning the hearts of the wireless broadband community. She has gone on record saying that once the decision is made to auction the MMDS spectrum, it would be difficult for her to contemplate disrupting those services.

Speaking at the Wireless Communications Association (www.wcai.com)conference in Boston on Monday, Abernathy said she believed a decision on spectrum should be made as soon as possible.

The WCA, which includes MMDS and Instructional Television Fixed Services (ITFS) license holders in the 2.5GHz band, has been active in fighting against a possible move by the FCC to reallocate its bands to 3G services.

Later in the day, Monsignor Michael Dempsey, Catholic Television Network president, spoke on behalf of holders of the 2,175 ITFS licenses.

“This is not the spectrum for 3G,” Dempsey said. He then added that he hoped that the common interests of the MMDS and IFTS license holders would continue even when the fight to preserve the spectrum was over.

On Tuesday, MMDS operators scheduled a fundraiser breakfast to assist the WCA in its efforts to preserve the bands for fixed broadband and IFTS. Sponsors of the event included officials from WorldCom Broadband Solutions, (www.worldcom.com), Sprint (www.sprint.com)and Nucentrix (www.nucentrix.com), the three largest holders of MMDS spectrum in the United States.

Keynote speaker for the opening WCA session was Michael Keith, AT&T Fixed Wireless Services president & CEO.

Keith told the crowd that the competition in the last mile and bundled services are the answer, as AT&T www.att.com is offering wireless broadband customers both voice and data. Although wireless broadband may be the third technology choice after cable and DSL, Keith said there are plenty of opportunities where the other services are not available. He cited Victoria, TX, as one example: There are 40,000 homes in Victoria and no DSL. Keith said AT&T put in six towers and expects to serve 20% of those homes in the first four to five months. The business of wireless broadband is like the business of cellular as far as rollout is concerned, Keith said.

“We’re about five years from where we need to be,” he said. Despite a somewhat grim year for wireless broadband carriers and equipment suppliers, especially in the United States, WCA’s 14th annual conference broke attendance records and increased exhibitors by 65%, according to Andrew Kreig, WCA president.