Vulcan Wireless pushes for 700 MHz interoperability

Vulcan Wireless, a 700 MHz licensee that is owned by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, is advocating for interoperability among the various 700 MHz spectrum band classes.

Vulcan, which owns 700 MHz spectrum licenses in the lower A Block in Oregon and Washington, is trying to use AT&T's proposed $1.93 billion acquisition of Qualcomm's MediaFLO spectrum, which sits in the lower D and E Blocks of the 700 MHz band, as a vehicle to push for the changes to interoperability rules. "One way forward would be to impose a narrowly tailored and transaction-specific condition in the AT&T/Qualcomm transaction," said Michele Farquhar, a lawyer at Hogan Lovells, which represents Vulcan at the Federal Communications Commission.

In a March 28 filing with the FCC, Vulcan argues that to ensure interoperability and prevent interference with the lower A-Block licensees, the FCC should prevent AT&T from pairing its 700 MHz B and C Block licenses with any newly acquired D and E Block licenses. As a condition of the deal, Vulcan is pushing to have the FCC require interoperability across the entire 700 MHz band by June 2013, when AT&T and Verizon Wireless are expected to be nearing the completion of their LTE deployments. Vulcan thinks that its strategy is more practical than that of another group, which is also advocating for 700 MHz interoperability. The 700 MHz Block A Good Faith Purchasers Alliance, a joint venture among Cellular South, Cavalier Wireless, Continuum 700 and U.S. Cellular, wants interoperability rules in place before any more 700 MHz equipment can be authorized by the FCC.