The Federal Communications Commission has opened a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking on "whether the FCC should take measures to reduce the number of migratory bird collisions with communications towers." This is the second comment cycle the agency has launched on the matter over the past three years—the first a Notice of Inquiry that the Commission authorized in 2003.

Meanwhile as many as 15 million migrating birds may have perished in collisions with U.S. wireless towers during this period. U.S. Department of Interior Fish and Wildlife Service documents cite statistics estimating that communications towers kill between four and five million birds a year, and that the number and size of these towers are growing at an "exponential" rate.

At its upcoming Open Meeting, most eyes will focus on whether the Federal Communications Commission approves AT&T's application to purchase BellSouth, creating the biggest telecommunications entity in the United States. But the agency will also ponder a matter that began vexing the Commission long before the AT&T controversy: the safety of birds in the Texas Gulf Coast and southwest.

During the Friday, November 3rd gathering, the FCC will once again tackle measures to protect migrating birds in Texas, Louisiana, and Oklahoma from electrified transmitter systems set up by wireless companies. The agenda simply says that the agency will "consider a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking on whether it should adopt certain measures to mitigate migratory bird collisions with communications towers."

The FCC has refused to order a moratorium on wireless transmitter towers in the Gulf Coast that environmental groups say kill migrating birds.

The ruling responded to an August 2002 petition filed by the Forest Preservation Council, the American Bird Conservancy, and the Friends of the Earth asking the FCC to stop registering new communications towers until the completion of an environmental review.

"While I am sympathetic to a number of issues raised in the petition before us today, the petition just is not the right vehicle for these overarching concerns," FCC Commissioner Jonathan Adelstein said in response to the decision. "This is particularly true when you consider the rebuilding efforts that will be so critical to the Gulf Coast area over the next several months, particularly with a new hurricane season rapidly approaching."