Tauke on C-SPAN
Verizon is watching with interest whether the FCC rethinks an order approving Harbinger Capital Partners Funds’ acquisition of SkyTerra, which effectively prohibits SkyTerra from leasing spectrum to either Verizon Wireless or AT&T without commission approval, Verizon Executive Vice President Tom…
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Tauke said. Tauke addressed the issue on an episode of C-SPAN’s The Communicators, scheduled to be telecast this weekend. AT&T this week petitioned the FCC to “reconsider -- and rescind” the parts of the order that apply to it and Verizon (CD April 1 p1). “We're trying to figure out what this is about,” Tauke said. “This is a merger between a satellite company and a venture capital company. The venture capital company agreed to some conditions at the FCC. These conditions now we find out … apply to us, have impact on us. Just from a process perspective this is kind of troubling because we had no access to any of the discussions that were going on at the FCC. There was no transparency. All these filings were confidential.” Verizon’s initial reaction was “this doesn’t seem like a fair process,” Tauke said. “The other factor that is of concern then is what kind of precedent this sets if this is permitted to happen. While this specific case may not be earth shattering … the precedent could be fairly troubling down the road.” Tauke also repeated calls on Congress to overhaul laws covering how telecom is regulated. “I think that Congress needs to take the lead,” he said. “The Federal Communications Commission really is facing a tough task. … They're trying to encourage investment, they want innovation in this space. All this is good, but they're trying to work with a statute that isn’t structured for this area. … When we look at this world of the Internet we don’t want it to be a wild, wild west. We want it to be governed by a rule of law.” Tauke said Verizon is pleased with many parts of the National Broadband Plan. “There’s so much in the broadband plan that to say [I'm] a full supporter probably would get me in some trouble with somebody,” he said. “Generally, there are a lot of very good things.”