WASHINGTON-Jay Kitchen has always had a knack for being able to talk to folks, whether they be mom-and-pop two-way radio dealers who for years have looked to him for representation in Washington, D.C., or Fortune 500 executives, engineers and policymakers whom he mixes with to help determine the direction of wireless telecommunications.
Now the stage and stakes are larger as Kitchen takes the helm of the Personal Communications Industry Association. That is, the PCIA that merged with the National Association of Business and Educational Radio that he headed up since 1981.
“We are excited about the broad scope of our new organization and we are convinced beyond belief that this is the organization of the future,” said Kitchen at a recent press briefing.
For Kitchen, 49, assuming the presidency of PCIA is the biggest achievement and challenge in his career, which began at the Federal Communications Commission in 1968 as a staff engineer in what became the Private Radio Bureau. Later he served as an engineering assistant to two FCC commissioners.
More than a year ago, Kitchen dodged a bullet when doctors detected colon cancer early in the disease’s progression. He is now a big advocate of preventive treatment.
“Our diversity brings strength,” Kitchen said of the trade association alliance, “and together (we) will play a leading role in shaping policy and defining the wireless future.”
Business trends and regulatory changes helped to bring NABER, the largest frequency coordinator of private mobile radio services, and PCIA, the major voice for common carrier paging and personal communications services firms, together.
The FCC, on orders from Congress, this year decided to regulate all paging operations under new, commercial mobile radio service rules. In the past, different rules existed for paging systems used internally by hospitals and businesses and for systems licensed to serve the public at large.
Kitchen predicts PCIA, which has a staff of about 100, will be the “premier voice” of the wireless industry. PCIA and NABER both are said to have healthy balance sheets.
Mark Golden, who had been acting PCIA president, will be vice president of industry affairs. John Chapple, who heads the messaging division at McCaw Cellular Communications Inc. (soon to be AT&T Wireless Systems), is the new PCIA chairman.
Kitchen played down the prospect of doing battle with the Cellular Telecommunications Industry Association for PCS members, pointing instead to the idea of cooperation between the two trade groups on issues of mutual interest.
Still, CTIA President Thomas Wheeler is expected to be aggressive in courting PCS licensees in hopes of luring them to join his powerful wireless organization.
“I think there is plenty of room for both organizations,” Kitchen told RCR, adding that many prospective PCS players have been working with PCIA in recent years to get next-generation wireless services into consumers’ hands.
Other issues that PCIA has brought to the attention of the Clinton administration include making federal property available for PCS base stations and establishing a policy for procuring and leasing antenna sites on government land.
Licenses auctioned for nationwide and regional PCS narrowband systems have raised more than $1 billion for the U.S. Treasury.
For years NABER opposed auctions “for fear the small folks would be left out,” Kitchen said, adding, “and I think it would be safe to say that’s exactly what turned out to be the case.”
Nevertheless, he conceded auctions appear to be swiftly putting licenses in the hands of firms serious about providing service.
However, he said auctioning frequencies in “refarmed” spectrum below the 512 MHz band would be ill-advised.
