FCC Asked To Provide More Clarity On Wireless Issues
NEW ORLEANS - A clear voice from the FCC would help resolve many problems facing the wireless industry and attract investment dollars, speakers agreed at a policy outlook panel at the CTIA annual convention. “Lack of a clear voice from the FCC is the biggest problem” in addressing jurisdictional and other important issues, Cal. PUC Comr. Susan Kennedy said: “There is no clear path and it’s going to take vision and backbone.” Citigroup Smith Barney Dir. Michael Rollins said “as we have convergence of services and technologies, it would help if regulators could chose one path to regulate. That would provide some clarity.”
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Speakers said the FCC should let the market regulate the wireless industry, though Kennedy noted: “There still needs to be a framework of national rules. You can’t completely trust the market.” She said it was important that states retain their role to protect consumers and have some “tools” for that. “There is going to have to be some rules done at the national level with enforcement being done at the state level. There has to be some place for consumers to go to and have problems resolved.”
FCC Comr. Abernathy said the wireless industry’s success “maybe led the states to think ‘maybe we should be doing more.'” She said the FCC hasn’t stepped in and defined the scope of federal jurisdiction. “I think there are very important questions that won’t go away and may involve some litigation,” she said.
Asked about what “3 wishes” they had for the Telecom Act rewrite, panelists responded with more than 3. Kennedy said Congress first ought to set a goal for the rewrite. She said she'd like Congress to: (1) “Make a clear statement that we are now in a competitive market.” (2) “Develop a national framework for regulatory policy to allow advanced services to flourish.” (3) “Eliminate the distinction between telecom and information services” and “define those services in a regulatory-neutral way.”
Abernathy said the “3 things” were “a wish list” unlikely to emerge from the rewrite anyway. “In a perfect world,” she'd like Congress to focus on a problem with regulatory silos and perhaps look at market power. She said she'd like “some clarity” of jurisdiction. “We need to clarify how we can maintain our competitive edge in the country and how our companies can become truly global players,” she said, adding that intercarrier compensation and universal service issues should be dealt with. Those issues probably would be resolved first at the FCC, rather than on the Hill, she said.
“We as an industry need to ensure that legislators realize that these boundaries all will go away in the IP world,” said Triton PCS CEO Michael Kilogris. He said when addressing issues the main question for the govt. was “What does the consumer need?”
Abernathy said technology would continue to advance and even “if we get it all wrong, technology won’t stop and that’s the good news.” Citigroup Dir. Michael Rollins said the “market can adjust to whatever regulation is” but “what would help the market is certainty of regulation. Policies that are predictable and encourage competition and free markets are very important.”
Abernathy said regulators always face a “dilemma": “'I bet that I can make it better, no matter how good things are going.’ And that is almost always wrong. What I've tried to do is step back and ask what is not happening that should happen… As a regulator you always want to believe that you are adding value.” But Kennedy said the point missed was that “there is a frustration with consumers” that the market can’t solve all the consumer protection problems. Kilogris called the market a perfect tool to address those problems.
Asked why other countries are outstripping the U.S. in wireless and broadband deployment, Abernathy cited several factors: “If you go to Italy, you can’t get a wireline phone. End of story. Wireless absolutely can penetrate that market faster than here.” On broadband penetration, she said: “Why don’t we have a broadband penetration as in Korea? You can’t compare Korea to the U.S. We have a huge country and we are not going to subsidize it [broadband deployment] and it has to be driven by market forces.” Abernathy said the govt. should “create a better environment to encourage uptake of the [wireless] use. We are doing some and could be doing more.” But she said the U.S., which has a non-expensive wireline service, would have smaller wireless penetration compared with other countries for some time. - Susan Polyakova