ADELSTEIN CONFIRMED BY SENATE, RAISING QUESTIONS ABOUT MARTIN'S ROLE

FCC’s direction could depend now on Republican Comr. Martin, described as “independent thinker” who has broken with Republican majority on other issues. Industry observers also hesitated to prognosticate about Adelstein because he had been silent on telecom issues for nearly year while he waited for Senate to confirm his nomination.

Several industry sources said Adelstein’s presence could give Martin more leverage in FCC policy. Adelstein’s arrival will mean “a significant difference in terms of where the voting balance is,” broadcast official predicted, giving Martin “even more of a significant role than before. He can be the swing vote if he wants to be.” He said Martin had shown willingness to be independent of Republican Chmn. Powell and other Republican, Comr. Abernathy, allowing him potentially to form majority on some issues with Adelstein and Comr. Copps. Rural telecom source said Martin could become “3rd vote,” along with Adelstein and Copps, on UNE-P, broadband and universal service and other issues where Commission currently has open proceedings. Source said Martin also was beginning to take interest in rural issues, unlike Powell and Abernathy. If so, source said, Martin could be particularly inclined to side with Democrats on rural issues.

Comr. Martin discounted theory that Adelstein’s presence could lead to coalitions with Martin and Copps, saying one couldn’t predict how coalitions formed, particularly on telecom issues, which often transcended political party lines. “A lot depends on the facts and the arguments and what seems persuasive to individual commissioners,” Martin said: “Each commissioner comes with views and predilections based on past experiences, as anyone does coming to a new job. You can’t make predictions on how someone is going to vote on an issue because it’s going go to the merits of the issues before them.” As far as political differences are concerned, “telecom issues in general don’t break along easy partisan lines,” Martin said. “I do think having a full complement of commissioners would be helpful. It would add an additional viewpoint, an additional person to bring a perspective of what the public interest means.” Copps, other Democrat on FCC, said getting Commission back to full complement was “happy day for me and for the Commission.” “Jonathan is uncommonly well-versed in the issues and he has a real and abiding commitment to help bring the best communications systems in the world to America’s consumers,” Copps said.

President Bush must sign commission before Adelstein takes seat, FCC said. White House didn’t return phone call about timetable and it wasn’t unknown whether he would be seated by Dec. 11 FCC meeting. Adelstein, 7-year telecom staffer to outgoing Senate Majority Leader Daschle (D-S.D.), was nominated by White House in Feb. and confirmed by Senate Commerce Committee in July. But Republicans held up his confirmation on at least 2 occasions after Senate Judiciary Committee rejected conservative judges for federal bench. But once Republicans took Senate after Nov. 7 election, mood appeared to change as Democrats lost leverage on judicial nominations. Adelstein will take seat vacated by former FCC Comr. Gloria Tristani that expires June 30, 2003.

Industry expressed relief, and many associations, advocates and companies issued news releases offering praise for Adelstein. Some said he had favorable view of their industry. “Jonathan understands that wireless is the poster child for Congress’s vision of a competitive telecom industry,” CTIA Pres. Tom Wheeler said. NTCA CEO Michael Brunner said: “His strong commitment to universal service and rural access to spectrum creates a healthy balance within the Commission and will bring some of the pressing issues facing rural America to the forefront.” Even RBOCs praised his rural advocacy. “BellSouth has more rural customers than any other local telephone company and they, too, should benefit from his special expertise,” said Herschel Abbott, BellSouth vp-govt. affairs. Verizon also claimed to have most rural customers and “looked forward” to working with him.

Rural advocates particularly expressed pleasure with Adelstein’s confirmation. NARUC Legislative Dir. Jessica Zufolo said he would bring “proconsumer, prorate payer” voice to FCC: “He’s aware of the role that states have in implementing telecom policy.” However, since Adelstein has recused himself from discussing telecom issues while awaiting confirmation, his views about some recent issues are unknown, even to those who know him personally, Zufolo said. Most relevantly, little is known about his position on unbundled network element platforms (UNE-Ps). But Zufolo said at recent NARUC conference that Martin was very receptive to state PUCs’ support of current UNE-P provision and particularly receptive to conservative Republican PUC comrs. who supported UNE-P.

NTCA Vp-Govt. Affairs Shirley Bloomfield said she had told members that while Adelstein would give rural advocates “a hearing,” he wasn’t likely to side with them on every issue. “He has a truly unique ability to balance everything,” she said. “We're so psyched he’s over there, but at the same time, we know he won’t side with us all the time. He lays everything on the table and will make his decisions based on what makes sense from an economic viewpoint.” OPASTCO Pres. John Rose said Adelstein would give rural operators “a fair hearing.” “We need attention, too, but we know he'll make his decisions in the public interest,” Rose said.

Change could be significant for some broadcast issues, one broadcaster said. For example, he said Martin had seemed to be “leaning our way” on issue of cable carriage of entire broadcast DTV signal. Since Copps also has indicated support for full carriage, arrival of Adelstein could mean majority, he said. On other hand, Martin is seen as likely to back Republicans on deregulating broadcast ownership, he said.

Some questioned whether Adelstein’s entrance could slow Commission’s progress on open proceedings. James Gattuso of Heritage Foundation said FCC should move as quickly as possible to remove broadband regulations that stifled investment, and Adelstein could slow down proceeding: “We need to keep the process moving. It’s been nearly a year, which is an eternity in Internet time.”

While Adelstein has been quiet recently, July Senate Commerce Committee confirmation hearing gave some insight into his opinions. He agreed with Sen. McCain (R-Ariz.), who will become Senate Commerce Committee chmn., that telecom industry was in “state of crisis.” Adelstein stressed importance of universal service. “I'm not convinced this or any FCC has placed the same level of priority on [universal service] that this committee or Congress has,” Adelstein told committee. He didn’t return call for this story. He said that universal service funding should be collected from intrastate telecom services and that Telecom Act gave FCC broader base for universal service, citing language that says collection should be “equitable and nondiscriminatory.” Adelstein told Sen. Brownback (R-Kan.) that Telecom Act contained tools to foster ubiquitous broadband deployment, such as universal service and spectrum management. Spectrum could be used to solve last-mile problem in rural areas, Adelstein said then. In Feb. 2000 at CTIA convention, he said question wasn’t whether universal service applied to broadband, “but when.”