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Technology Stocks : Advanced Radio Telecom (ARTT) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Lutz Moeller who wrote (756)	6/10/1999 5:29:00 PM
From: Obewon	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1176

Just noticed this little gem of an article which might help all the fixed wireless providers tomorrow. Obewon U.S. FCC seeks access for fixed wireless carriers WASHINGTON, June 10 (Reuters) - Fixed wireless telecommunications providers like WinStar could get easier access to rooftops and inside wiring of office and apartment buildings, under proposed rules adopted by the Federal Communications Commission on Thursday. The proposal, which could be changed after a comment period, would require dominant local telephone carriers to share access to buildings. Fixed wireless carriers, who provide telephone and high-speed Internet service using small receiver dishes on rooftops, complain that incumbent carriers and building owners are limiting their access and thwarting their ability to compete. The FCC proposal grew out of a petition filed by WinStar Communications Inc. (Nasdaq:WCII - news). But a majority of the five-member FCC expressed doubts about extending the access rule to situations where building owners -- not other carriers -- controlled the rooftops or wires. The proposed rules adopted on Thursday simply asked for comment on the issue of regulating building owners and did not take a preliminary position on that issue. The 1996 Telecommunications Act gives the FCC broad powers to regulate telecommunications carriers to promote competition. FCC Chairman William Kennard said he was willing to ''push the envelope'' and consider regulating building owners. Commissioner Michael Powell, however, said he had ''grave reservations.'' ''It's difficult for me to imagine how one could extend their jurisdiction,'' he said. Powell noted that federal courts have held agencies to a high standard when they ran afoul of the Constitution's prohibition on the government taking property from citizens without just compensation. Commissioner Gloria Tristani said she was worried about ''very serious Constitutional concerns and questions.'' Commissioner Harold Furchgott-Roth said he feared that a wireless carrier might seek to place a huge antenna farm on the roof of an ordinary citizen's home, relying on the fact that the person already allowed a telephone line into their home.