Sirius Radio said it conducted first test of satellite radio system from orbiting satellite to mobile car radios. Ford Telematics Dir. Russ Minick said “difference between Sirius and regular radio is really impressive.” Tweeter Home Entertainment Group Buyer Marc Spatz said listening to service live “exciting.” Testing includes end-to-end testing and integration of Sirius receiver, studio, broadcast, transaction management and customer service systems, as well as feedback from listeners on programming, company said.

FCC declined Fri. to preempt Mo. law (HB 620) that prohibits political subdivisions such as municipalities from providing telecom services or facilities, concluding that term “entity” in Sec. 253(a) of Communications Act wasn’t intended to include political subdivisions of state but rather appeared to prohibit restrictions on market entry that apply to independent entities subject to state regulation. Acting on preemption petition filed by Mo. Assn. of Municipal Utilities, City Utilities of Springfield and others, Commission said that if municipally owned utility sought to provide telecom service or facility as independent corporate entity that was separate from state, “we could reach a different result under Section 252(a).” Mo. municipalities argued that even if Commission were correct in concluding that Congress didn’t clearly intend to include municipalities that didn’t own and operate electric utilities within scope of Sec. 253, Congress did clearly intend term “any entity” to apply to power companies owned by municipalities. As it found in Texas Preemption Order, FCC said, “any entity” was not intended to include political subdivisions of state. Commission urged states to refrain from enacting absolute prohibitions on ability of municipal entities to provide telecom service. Municipally owned utilities have potential to become major competitors in telecom industry, it said, and their entry could further goal of Act to bring benefits of competition to all Americans, particularly those living in small or rural communities. As for concerns of taxpayer protection from economic risks of entry and possible regulatory bias that municipalities’ entry raise, Commission said such issues could be dealt with successfully through measures that were much less restrictive than outright ban on entry. For instance, there could be nondiscrimination requirements that require municipal entity to operate in manner that’s separate from municipality, “thereby permitting consumers to reap the benefits of increased competition.” FCC also rejected municipalities’ contention that even if municipally owned utilities were political subdivisions of state, legislative history of Sec. 253 (a) demonstrated that Congress clearly intended “any entity” to cover municipal electric utilities. “Other than indicating that municipal energy utilities may make their facilities available to carriers, the legislative history that the petitioners cite does not distinguish between publicly owned and privately owned utilities,” Commission said. In joint statement, FCC Chmn. Kennard and Comr. Tristani said they voted reluctantly to preempt petition because they believed “HB- 620 effectively eliminates municipally owned utilities as a promising class of local communications competitors in Missouri.” Commission was constrained in authority to preempt by decision by U.S. Appeals Court, D.C., City of Abilene, and U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Gregory v. Ashcroft, they said. Referring to letters from many members of Congress that said it was intent of Congress when it enacted Sec. 253 to enable any entity, regardless of form of ownership or control, to enter telecom market, they urged Congress to consider amending language in section to clearly address municipally owned entities. In separate statement, Comr. Ness urges states to adopt less restrictive measures, such as separation or nondiscriminatory requirements, to protect utility ratepayers or address any perceived unfair competitive advantage.

NARUC recommended FCC not streamline its service quality reports. In comments filed Fri., NARUC said Commission’s current reports had shown “long-term negative trend in service quality.” Cutting back on information collection now would reduce ability of state and federal regulators to monitor such problems, group said. “In the absence of some compelling ILEC evidentiary showing that the reports are somehow unnecessary, it appears the proposal to reduce reporting requirements is premature,” NARUC said. FCC proposed reducing data collected from large ILECs as part of its biennial review process (CC Doc. 00-229).

GSM Assn. reached agreement with TDMA wireless group Universal Wireless Communications Consortium (UWCC) to include TDMA interoperability with GSM as component of GSM Global Roaming Forum. Point of forum is to foster interoperability of GSM and non-GSM technologies with goal of intrastandard roaming among carriers. Groups said GSM and TDMA interoperability, through GSM/ANSI-136 Interoperability, has been under discussion since 1999. Agreement between 2 wireless groups brought development work under purview of roaming forum. Forum develops technical requirements for terminals, networking and commercial standards for services, billing and financial settlements.

Cingular Wireless petitioned U.S. Appeals Court, D.C., to review past FCC orders that kept in place commercial mobile radio service (CMRS) spectrum cap of 45 MHz in all but rural areas, where cap is 55 MHz. FCC in Nov. turned down 1999 petitions for reconsideration filed by CTIA and BellSouth, which since has finalized Cingular joint venture with SBC (CD Nov 9 p6). FCC at that time reiterated its plan to revisit spectrum cap issue as part of 2000 Biennial Review by late 2000, item that Commission appeared to be close to releasing late last week. Cingular said in petition that it was “aggrieved” by FCC decision not to eliminate or significantly scale back CMRS spectrum cap. “Relief is sought on the grounds that this finding is arbitrary and capricious, unsupported by substantial evidence and otherwise contrary to law,” Cingular said. It asked court to set aside FCC finding that spectrum cap should be retained or to vacate rule.

Crown Castle International announced IPO of 12 million shares of common stock at $26.25 per share to raise $315 million. Company said offering was expected to close Jan. 17. Crown Castle said it planned to use proceeds for “general corporate purposes” such as capital spending and for acquiring shared communications infrastructure.

Latest DTV station on air is WTLV-DT (Ch. 12, NBC) Jacksonville, which carries DTV on Ch. 13. Station is 173rd to carry DTV, NAB said.

Terawave Communications announced $73 million infusion from investors. Two-year old fiber network access equipment supplier, based in Hayward, Cal., said it now was funded at $133 million.

Now that FCC finally has approved AOL’s takeover of Time Warner (TW) with additional regulatory conditions, cable operators, consumer groups, phone companies, state and local regulators, ISPs, broadcasters, DBS providers, cable overbuilders and others already are girding for next big fights over extending those regulations to rest of cable industry. Likely new battle fronts include 2 separate FCC proceedings on cable open access issue and interactive TV (ITV) rules, each of which covers part of leading conditions imposed on AOL-TW by FTC and FCC. Another new battle front could be expected bill in new Congress that would create comprehensive regulatory scheme for all broadband services, whether delivered by cable, telephone, satellite or wireless technologies. “It’s going to be more diffuse,” said Precursor Group CEO Scott Cleland. “The progress will still be made but it will be more difficult to track.”

FCC Chmn. Kennard made it official Fri.: He’s leaving Commission Jan. 19 “with great pride in the accomplishments of the Commission” and “deep gratitude” for opportunity to serve, he said in resignation letter sent to President Clinton Fri. Kennard said that for “next few months” he will be senior fellow of Aspen Institute’s Communications and Society Program in Washington. He also will be first chairman of program’s new advisory board. However, his immediate plans are to “get some rest and spend some time with my 10-month-old,” he told reporters after news conference on AOL-Time Warner vote. He said he hadn’t decided what he would do after Aspen Institute. Asked if he wanted to stay in telecom policy, he responded: “Sure, I love it.” Asked to name his top 3 accomplishments, he listed (1) implementation of Telecom Act, (2) e-rate, (3) expanding telecom service to disabled community, native Americans, small and minority businesses. Ex- FCC Chmn. Reed Hundt said Kennard “has done more to include minorities and disadvantaged groups in the communications revolution than all previous FCC chairs combined.” NARUC Gen. Counsel Brad Ramsay said he “will hate to see him go” because Kennard made effort to include state regulators in development of issues. “He always made time to come to NARUC and discuss things one-on-one,” he said. Announcement of new chairman isn’t expected until after President-elect George Bush is sworn in Jan. 20.