From RCR WIreless News:

WASHINGTON-The Federal Communications Commission Friday changed the band plan for advanced wireless services in the 2 GHz band, making additional spectrum available to rural carriers.

"The minor modifications we make might actually turn out to be important. We want to make sure we have maximum flexibility," said FCC Commissioner Kathleen Abernathy. "Is it perfect? No. You cannot have a perfect band plan with the geography of the U.S."

The new bands will be arranged by creating a new 20-megahertz F Block.

The FCC denied a request from Council Tree Communications to set aside a specific spectrum block for small businesses. The commission also said no to a Council Tree suggestion that there be three tiers of bidding credits instead of two.

Additionally, Council Tree had brought forward allegations of small companies partnering with large carriers, effectively allowing large carriers to get bidding credits they do not qualify for. The FCC will separately examine this issue, and both Democrats on the panel urged the commission to complete the examination before the agency is scheduled to auction this spectrum in June 2006.

"It is unclear to me why the FCC allows large wireless companies to partner with designated entities. This is even more important in the AWS auction where auction proceeds must be sufficient to cover government relocation costs. Also, the AWS auction should raise $15 billion by some estimates for the federal government at a time when our budget is under ever-increasing pressure. Do we want the nation's largest wireless carriers partnering with DEs to get a 25-percent discount so that auction revenues to the U.S. Treasury could potentially be reduced by well over $1 billion? How is the public interest served in that outcome?" asked FCC Commissioner Jonathan Adelstein. "At a time of wholesale consolidation in the industry, it seems unwise to allow wireless giants to access a discount by being allowed to partner with supposedly small businesses. Allowing access to discounts by the country's largest wireless businesses, at the expense of taxpayers, seems completely at odds with the program whose purpose is to help small telecommunications businesses get a foothold so that they can compete on a more level playing field with more-established companies."

In other action, the FCC said that facilities-based broadband and interconnected Voice over Internet Protocol providers are subject to the Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act of 1994

"Responding to the needs of law enforcement is of paramount importance. New technologies present challenges to executing authorized electronic surveillance," said FCC Chairman Kevin Martin. "Although I believe that new technologies and services should operate free of economic regulation, I also believe that law-enforcement agencies must have the ability to conduct lawful electronic surveillance over these new technologies. We must strike a balance between fostering competitive broadband deployment with meeting the needs of the law-enforcement community."

The FCC did not rule on the technical requirements at this time.