Today, a bidder on the nationwide C Block slice of the coveted 700mhz spectrum offered up a whopping $4.71 billion.

This bid pushed the auction over the FCC reserve price - triggering the "open access" condition - requiring that the spectrum be accessible to any device or software application.

The bidders' identities are being kept anonymous so as to prevent anti-competitive activity (or so the FCC says) until the entire auction ends. Analysts have speculated that the most likely bidders for the C Block airwaves are Verizon Wireless and Google.

Google had said publicly that they would bid up the price to at least the reserve level so as to ensure the open access condition was put into place.

The C Block is one of five different sections of the 700mhz spectrum - though it is a nationwide slice and considered the most valuable. The 700mhz signal is coveted because it can not only travel a long distance, but can also penetrate thick walls.

Combined, the 700mhz auction is up to $12.78 Billion... and counting.

[RCR News]

Introducing the BlackBerry Remote Stereo Gateway, hot off the presses at the FCC, coming to an executive's office sometime in the future.

It uses Bluetooth to enable a wireless transmission of music from your BlackBerry device to your home or portable stereo. Simply pair your BlackBerry to the Gateway, and plug the Gateway into your stereo (via a 3.5mm line-in or RCA aux input).

Magically all your music tunes get streamed to the speakers of your choice. Think of it like a dock for your phone, only without the wires.

What was it that the NAB used to define satellite radio? Oh right, "nationwide, multi-channel, audio programming." So... what would you call streaming audio over mobile devices?

[via Gizmodo]

Georgetown Partners, the minority-owned company that wants 20% of satellite radio infrastructure handed over to them, has filed comments with the FCC calling the Sirius-XM proposed A La Carte pricing a "fairytale."

"The Sirius-XM 'A La Carte' offerings are a 'fairytale'." writes Georgetown Partners in the ex parte filing. "There are no public interest benefits in the near or even in the intermediate future."

Georgetown's claims go on to state that all satellite radio receivers would have to be replaced in order for the A La Carte packages to be made available to subscribers.

"Even assuming that sometime in the distant future these radios were actually to be produced and could be purchased, the more than 30 million present owners of installed automobile satellite radio receivers and the tens of million of future car owners of such radios would have to rip these radios out of their dash boards, junk them, and pay whatever monopoly price the post-merger company would charge for the 'next generation' radios," writes Georgetown.

(As opposed to waving a magic wand and making those receivers capable of new features?)

"Unlike the Sirius-XM 'A La Carte' offerings, [Georgetown's] proposal provides true benefits for the public including to every owner of a satellite receiver today and in the future and a competitive presence in the market that otherwise would be ruled by a monopoly," the company writes.

"Georgetown’s proposal requires the combined Sirius-XM to carry Georgetown’s advertiser-supported programming to everyone with a satellite radio receiver – subscriber or not. The result would be immediate, continuing and permanent tangible benefit to the public."

So let me get this straight, the public interest solution that Georgetown is proposing is to... introduce commercials into a free service?

Wait ...and why can't the FCC require that Sirius-XM do this themselves?

[FCC Filing (PDF) via Orbitcast Forums]

The National Council of Negro Women (NCNW) submitted a letter to the FCC yesterday, voicing their general opposition to the Sirius-XM merger.

And one of the main reasons as to why they don't approve of the transaction is... Howard Stern, Opie & Anthony and Bubba the Love Sponge.

"One only has to evaluate the current programming now offered by Sirius and XM to recognize that our concerns and fears are well founded," the NCNW wrote in their letter to the FCC Chairman. "Programming such as Howard Stern, Opie and Anthony, and Bubba the Love Sponge - which help to perpetuate racist and sexist stereotypes in our culture - drive the business of both companies." (emphasis added)

The African-American women's organization goes on to say: "A Sirius - XM satellite radio monopoly will focus it (sic) resources on only its most profitable audiences, with more of the same lowest-common-denominator programming of the Howard Stern variety."

That's quite the assumption for a post-merger scenario.

And if that's the case, why wait? Both companies already seek profitability right now. Why would XM hire Oprah Winfrey, Dr. Maya Angelou, and the Reverend Al Sharpton - after hiring Opie & Anthony mind you - if selling out to the "lowest-common-denominator" was such a priority?

Howard Stern, Opie & Anthony and Bubba the Love Sponge constitute only 3 channels out of over 300 combined - that's 1% of all programming offered by Sirius and XM together - let's not forget that.

The National Council of Negro Women goes on to voice their support for Georgetown Partners. Georgetown, which also has the support of the Rev. Jesse Jackson, is asking that Sirius and XM be required to hand over 20% of their channel capacity so as to "create competition and diversity" in satellite radio.

Disgusting.

[Read the full letter (PDF)]

If there's one thing I know about spectrum, it's that it's terribly boring to talk about. So when news hits the wires about the coveted 700mhz spectrum auction starting today, most folks' eyes glaze over and their brains switch to hold-music.

Thankfully, the good folks over at Engadget Mobile have put together a handy list of need-to-know items about today's auction and have translated the FCC-speak into Normal-speak. GigaOm has a nice breakdown as well.

There's some 214 bidders in this auction. Some of the big-boys to keep an eye on are AT&T, Verizon and Google, not to mention Cox, EchoStar, and Paul Allen (the deep pocketed co-founder of Microsoft) - check out USA Today for a nice chart breaking down the interests of some of the key players.

What does this mean to satellite radio? Nothing right now. Ultimately I think Block C, which is the nationwide block with the most bandwidth, will lead to the much fabled Wireless Internet (one of the FCC's requirements is to make Block C an "open-access" network), but that's all just pipe-dreams right now. There needs to be a winner first.

Adding to the list of merger-related activity at the FCC recently, iBiquity Digital Corporation held yet another meeting with members of the Commission earlier this week, according to a recent FCC filing.

iBiquity CEO Robert Struble and counsel met with Commission Jonathan Adelstein and Rudy Brioché of Commissioner Adelstein’s office. Their discussion was similar to previous meetings in that iBiquity expressed "concern" over competitive implications should the merger be approved.

Speaking of implications. iBiquity implies quite a bit at these meetings. From the filing:

"iBiquity raised concerns about exclusive arrangements between XM and Sirius and automobile manufacturers that could serve as a barrier to iBiquity’s ability to sell HD Radio receivers to end users. iBiquity also expressed concern that satellite radio companies may have used subsidies and incentives to discourage proliferation of HD Radio products. iBiquity discussed its concern that the merger has the potential to exacerbate these problems."

Interesting, so now that sluggish growth we're hearing about is XM and Sirius' fault? Seriously? Remember, some studies predicted that 1.5 million HD Radio units would be sold in 2007 (and that was reduced from 2.1 million), while other research firms, like Barrington Research, had hoped for a more conservative 1 million units.

"Our impression is that the actual unit sell-through was only about half that total," said Barrington Research analyst Jim Goss. That's roughly 500,000 units for the entire year if your math is rusty.

So the burden of that failure is now being placed on satellite radio's mystical "incentives" that somehow "discouraged" the sale of HD Radios. That is, despite HD Radio being all over CES this year, and being included in new tabletop radios that forgo XM in favor of iTunes Tagging support. Yeah, I can definitely see proof of iBiquity's accusations there.

iBiquity's solution to these "concerns" of course hasn't changed since last month - they just want the government to require that HD Radio technology be included in every satellite radio sold.

Oh, and Goss also added that iBiquity is getting $5-$6 for every HD Radio receiver sold. So, you know, requiring that HD Radio technology be included in every Sirius and XM unit sold has absolutely nothing to do with the interests of iBiquity. Nah... it's all "to insure a level competitive playing field," right?

[FCC Filing (PDF), Radio Ink]

UPDATE: Looks like iBiquity met with Commissioner Michael Copps and Rich Chessen of Commissioner Copps’ office as well. [FCC Filing (PDF)]

Only three weeks into the new year, and members of the FCC have met various parties involving the merger of Sirius Satellite Radio Inc. and XM Satellite Radio Holdings Inc. on eight separate occurrences.

Could this (finally) be a sign that we'll have a decision on the merger soon? Here's a listing of some of the reported activity coming from the Commission:

• January 3, 2008: The CEO of US Electronics (along with counsel) met with Comissioner Copps and his advisor, Rick Chessen. [Link (PDF)]
• January 4, 2008: Georgetown Partners, TSG Capital Group, and King & Spalding LLP met with Michelle Carey, senior legal advisor to Chairman Martin. [Link (PDF)]
• January 7, 2008: Chester C. Davenport, Managing Director of Georgetown Partners met with Commissioner Jonathan Adelstein [Link (PDF)]
• January 7, 2008: Georgetown Partners on the same day also met with Commissioner Michael Copps. [Link (PDF)]
• January 9, 2008: Georgetown Partners and the Reverend Jesse Jackson met with Chairman Kevin Martin [Link (PDF)]
• January 11, 2008: XM and Sirius, along with CRA International, met with representatives from the FCC to discuss the findings of the CRA study which determined that Satellite Radio and Terrestrial Radio are demand substitutes. [Link (PDF)]
• January 14, 2008: Once again Chester Davenport of Georgetown Partners, Rev. Jesse Jackson and Kimberly Marcus (also of the Rainbow PUSH coalition) met with Chairman Kevin Martin, Daniel Gonzalez and Catherine Bohigian. On the same day in a separate meeting: Davenport, Rev. Jackson and Ms. Marcus met with Commissioner Michael Copps, Commissioner Jonathan Adelstein, Rick Chessen and Rudy Brioché. And in yet another meeting Davenport, Jackson, and Marcus met with Commissioner Robert McDowell. [Link (PDF)]
• January 15, 2008: iBiquity CEO Robert Struble met with Commissioner Robert McDowell as well as Angela Giancarlo and Cristina Chou Pauze of Commissioner McDowell's office. [Link (PDF)]

Last month, RBC Capital analyst David Bank predicted that the FCC's decision would likely stretch to February of this year.

"We believe XMSR/SIRI management served up the necessary sacrificial lamb(s) by offering ala carte pricing and openness to variety of other conduct/behavioral conditions," wrote Bank. "However, our sources indicate FCC is likely 1-2 months away from fully fleshing out conditionality such as ala carte pricing, interoperability of radios, unused channel availability to 3rd parties, indecency standards and local content restrictions."

From the looks of these recent meetings, it appears that the FCC is working through those conditionalities right now.

Congressman Luis G. Fortuno, the sole representative of Puerto Rico in Congress, submitted an interesting comment to the FCC today regarding the merger between Sirius Satellite Radio Inc. and XM Satellite Radio Holdings Inc.

He urged the Commission to not approve the Sirius-XM merger, unless the companies include Puerto Rico and other noncontiguous areas of the U.S. as part of their service.

"It is time to change the 1997 policies," asserted Fortuno in reference to the SDARS license and it's 48 state requirement.

Fortuno is also the Chair of the Congressional Hispanic Conference and the Ranking Member of the newly-created House Subcommittee on Insular Affairs.

"My official position is to oppose the merger until such time that the exclusion of Puerto Rico and other noncontiguous United States jurisdictions from coverage area of satellite radio service ceases," wrote Fortuno. "My interest and concern include providing equal access to this technology to all U.S. citizens and encouraging industries doing businesss in the mainland to extend their services to the Puero Rican market."

His sentiment echoes a similar filing (PDF) submitted earlier this year by the Senate of Puerto Rico. The Senate contends that "[s]ince the FCC represents the public interest of all United States citizens... its deliberations should also watch for the interests of the millions of consumers residing in the outlying States and Territories under the United States flag."

As such, they oppose the merger until Sirius and XM provide coverage to Puerto Rico.

Somehow, I can't see allowing Puerto Rico's nearly 4 million residents to sign up to Sirius-XM as being much of a problem.

[FCC Filing (PDF)]

FCC Chairman Kevin Martin said recently that the Commission expects to complete its review of the merger between Sirius Satellite Radio Inc. and XM Satellite Radio Holdings Inc. by March.

"If I had to guess, I would guess the commission will be trying to address it in the first quarter of this year," said Martin.

Back in September, the FCC Chairman had said that he was targeting for the Sirius-XM merger review process to conclude in the fourth quarter of last year.

Martin also conceded that the unofficial 180-day shot clock for considering the merger had concluded in December. In fact, Martin said the FCC has not yet completed its analysis and that as recently as a few days ago the Commission was meeting with Sirius and XM over follow-up questions about some of its data.

Kevin Martin also said that it was customary for the FCC to wait for the DOJ before weighing in on a merger and didn't know when the Justice Department would be coming out with its decision. He added that the FCC would not necessarily hold off once the DOJ has completed its review.

[Broadcasting & Cable]

The U.S. House Energy and Commerce Committee has launched a probe to investigate FCC rule-making procedures.

Specifically the Committee will seek to determine whether agency procedures are "being conducted in a fair, open, efficient and transparent manner."

Committee Chairman John Dingell (D-MI) and Joe Barton (R-TX), sent a letter to FCC Chairman Kevin Martin informing him of the formal investigation into the FCC's procedures. They asked Martin to save all electronic records and personal e-mails related to FCC work. The investigation would also "address a growing number of allegations received by the committee" that relate to management practices, their letter said.

The panel did not cite a specific case though.

"This most likely won’t impact XM/SIRI, but another risk factor develops," wrote Jonathan Jacoby in a recent research note.

"While we believe this will not stop Martin in his decision regarding the XM/SIRI merger - it does create another element of risk for the deal."

An FCC spokesman declined to comment on the letter.

[Read the full letter (PDF) via Reuters]