Telecom oversight is “increasingly irrelevant” thanks to competition, “particularly among different communications platforms,” the Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI) said Tues. Report authors Braden Cox and Clyde Crews said Congress should heed these trends and adopt a “tailored” approach to communications reform. For example, Congress should set “clear boundaries as to whether an area of communications should be regulated by federal or state law,” said the study, “Communications without Commissions.” Lawmakers should “restrict” the FCC’s role, the authors said, urging it be “limited to applying general unfair competition rules similar to that of the Federal Trade Commission.” Policymakers should “move to a system of regulation through market disciple rather than government rules,” the authors said. The Telecom Act recognized that “competitive markets produce better outcomes [than govt.] interference, but subsequent policies have departed from that understanding,” the study said. Among other recommendations: Policymakers should “distinguish economic regulation from social welfare initiatives” and revise programs such as universal service “in ways that do not require FCC oversight.” The authors said “social goals should be disentangled from industry- specific taxes, price controls, technological mandates and other economic regulations.”

SAN MATEO, Cal. -- A red flag on city use of Wi-Fi has been raised by an FCC official. “You have to be very careful,” Alan Scrime warned city officials, vendors and others at the World Internet Institute’s Digital Cities Convention here late Tues. Because Wi-Fi is unlicensed, “it’s not a guaranteed service,” said Scrime, chief of the Policy & Rules Div., FCC Office of Engineering & Technology.

With FCC Chmn. Martin and Comr. Abernathy concurring, the FCC clarified the National Programmatic Agreement (NPA) Thurs., clearing tower notifications referred to the agency by applicants before Sept. 10. Many applications arrived at the FCC when carriers wishing to build towers got no responses from Indian tribes on whether projects would affect historic preservation lands. Carriers can file notification with the FCC after 2 failed attempts to contact a tribe, and hundreds of applications are pending at the agency, slowing siting of new antennas. The FCC clarified Thurs. that a wireless provider or other tower applicant “will have fulfilled its obligations under the NPA” 20 days after the FCC sent a latter or e-mail to the tribe asking if it wanted to participate in the proposed tower review and got no response. “If the Indian tribe or NHO [Native Hawaiian Organization] does not respond within 20 days of the FCC’s letter and/or e-mail, which will be followed up by an attempted FCC telephone contact during the same 20-day period, it will be deemed to have no interest in the review of the proposed facility,” the FCC said. Backing an FCC goal of eliminating “a significant backlog of tower referrals,” Martin and Abernathy concurred with the order. “We continue to believe that siting of towers or antennas is not a federal or federally assisted undertaking, and we would have preferred that the Commission reconsider its decision on that issue,” they said in a joint statement: “We also would have preferred an even more streamlined review process that would have allowed construction to proceed faster.” Martin and Abernathy said they support a CTIA “3-strikes” proposal backed by industry and the United South & Eastern Tribes. “While we concur in today’s ruling, we worry that this process may still add needless layers of bureaucracy to the tower siting process and lead to unnecessary delay,” they said. Comr. Copps said he supports the decision “first and foremost because it maintains the basic procedures adopted in [NPA] and continues the vitally important government-to-government relationship that guides FCC interactions” with Indian tribes and NHOs. Although the decision is “not as perfect or as rigorous as I would have preferred,” Copps said, he is “optimistic” that the new clarification “will enable the timely deployment of communications infrastructure, while, at the same time, allowing us to protect our valuable historic places.” Comr. Adelstein said the order “strikes the right balance between the Commission’s consultation obligations to Indian tribes and [NHOs] under Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act of 1996 and the need for certainty when Indian tribes and NHOs” don’t respond to industry and FCC’s requests. “The NPA can and will work,” Adelstein said: “We have taken important steps in this item, and we should continue to improve the consultation process through periodic reviews of the notification provisions of the NPA.”

The FCC should have more authority to handle coordination of emergency communications during disasters, Senate Commerce Committee Chmn. Stevens (R-Alaska) said Thurs. at a hearing. One key example would be to give the Commission power over credentialing employees to enter disaster areas -- a role now largely performed by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), Stevens said. “We want to have a plan in place to be able to get in touch with people,” Stevens said. FCC Chmn. Martin said the additional authority Stevens envisioned would be “good,” but said the Commission would still work with FEMA “since they are the ones on the ground.”

The first Hurricane Katrina-related measure addressing interoperability issues to get a full committee mark-up (S-1725) Thurs. passed the Senate Homeland Security & Govt. Affairs Committee with little debate and was reported to the full Senate. Introduced jointly by Chmn. Collins (R-Me.) and Sen. Lieberman (D-Conn.), the bill covers interoperability and the larger issue of “operability” -- the need for systems that can survive disaster -- by providing $400 million in grants to states and creating a new Homeland Security Dept. (DHS) office to work on the issues.

As many as 20 elected local govt. officials Wed. began lobbying key members of the House and Senate Commerce Committees, urging Congress to “recognize the importance of local franchising authority.” More than 50 meetings with members of Congress and staff have been set, said Arvada (Colo.) Mayor Ken Fellman, who chairs the National League of Cities’ (NLC) Information & Technology Communications Committee.

Media Access Project (MAP) defended new FCC rules on non-federal govt. wireless operations in the 3650-3700 MHz band. The order, adopted earlier this year, provides for nationwide, non-exclusive licensing of terrestrial operations. The order stipulates use of a contention- based protocol requirement and mandatory registration of fixed and base stations with an obligation to avoid interference to new entrants. Motorola, Intel, Redline Communications, Wireless Communications Assn., WiMAX Forum, Satellite Industry Assn., Enterprise Wireless Alliance and BRN Phoenix sought reconsideration. MAP disputed that request. “The rules developed for 3650-3700 MHz represent a bold deregulatory step by the Commission and should have time to prove themselves in the market conditions,” MAP said. It said a licensed regime, which many petitioners back, “would engender significant delay while service rules are developed and would foreclose use of the band by anyone unable to pay the upfront fee for licenses.” Citing the success of wireless ISPs (WISPs) and community wireless networks (CWNs) in substituting for damaged critical communications infrastructure after Hurricane Katrina, MAP said the new 3.6 GHz rules would enable WISPs and CWN within a year to provide “more extensive services more quickly, particularly with 25-watt transmitters for backhaul and wide-area networks.” Saying manufacturers such as Cisco and Tropos back the rules, MAP urged the FCC to rebuff claims by Motorola and cohort that “no one” would develop equipment in the space. MAP said it’s “not uncommon” for firms to differ on the degree of specificity in rules on technology or sharing mechanisms: “It has been fairly common for large companies to wait while entrepreneurial companies develop new equipment and industry standards. After the market has settled, the larger companies buy the successful entrepreneurs.” MAP also stressed the need to resolve the matter quickly to speed investment in new gear.

Local telecom regulators converge in Washington this week for the annual NATOA conference amid challenges to their power as the Bells push for national video franchising. Discussions will focus on the impending telecom rewrite, said NATOA Pres. Coralie Wilson. Threats to local authority are cyclical, said NATOA Exec. Dir. Libby Beaty: “This is not something that is unprecedented at all.”

Elderly and disabled Europeans could be left out of the Information Society unless information and communications technologies (ICT) become more accessible, the European Commission (EC) said Thurs. It urged member states to work together to push e-accessibility and encourage industry to use ICTs. Rather than proposing legislation, however, the EC said it would explore avenues to more access with users, industry and standards bodies via 3 policy levers: (1) Enhancing the consistency of accessibility requirements in ICT public procurement contracts. (2) Exploring potential benefits of certification schemes for accessible products and services. (3) Exploiting existing laws’ e-accessibility potential. The Commission said the U.S. and Japan are in front on e-accessibility -- the U.S., by mandating federal govt. purchase of electronic and IT products and services that meet accessibility standards, Japan by building ICT accessibility requirements into standards.

Broadband video services would be federally regulated but local authorities authorized to assess franchise fees up to 5% of gross revenue, under a draft of the House Commerce Committee telecom update bill released Thurs. The bill would put VoIP services, broadband video services and “broadband Internet transmission services” (BITS) under federal regulatory authority. House leaders who worked on the legislation -- Committee Chmn. Barton (R- Tex.), ranking member Dingell (D-Mich.) Telecom Subcommittee Chmn. Upton, ranking Subcommittee member Markey (D-Mass.) and Rep. Pickering (R-Miss.) -- agreed on the discussion draft Wed. and began distributing copies to members Thurs., House sources said.