Publishing mogul Steve Forbes, the newest GOP contender for the White House, has chosen FCC Chairman Reed Hundt as a sparring partner to prepare for next year’s presidential debates.
Forbes, perhaps wary about whether America is ready to become a flat-tax society, is trying another theme on voters: kill the Federal Communications Commission. Hey, now that’s original. Bet that will resonate outside the Beltway with the masses.
“In recent years, the FCC has been a blocker of cellular telephones, it’s been a blocker of the advance of cable television,” said Forbes. “Get rid of something that’s outlived its usefulness.”
Gosh, I could have sworn that was George Gilder-champion of a flat-tax-like, one-size-fits-all spectrum policy-talking.
Hundt, said by one former FCC chairman to have an allergic reaction to bad press, responded that the “FCC might as well stand for Federal Cash Cow since we do more to raise money to reduce the deficit than any other government unit in history. Our current budget is approximately $185 million. By contrast, in our auctions-opposed for obscure reasons by writers in your eponymous magazine!-we have so far raised about $9 billion.”
“So I thought you should know,” concluded Hundt, “that we’re the goose that lays the golden eggs, and for that reason (among many others) shouldn’t be killed.”
Goose? Cash Cow? Auctions? Sounds more like Orwell’s Animal Farm.
…Meanwhile, the Federal Cash Cow said it got 167 applications for the 900 MHz specialized mobile radio auction on Nov. 28. Thirty-five of the filings were incomplete, but can be resubmitted by Nov. 13. A total of 1,020 licenses will be sold.
…More than 40,000 SMR applications for 800 MHz frequencies have been processed and 6,300 licenses granted using software, hardware and personnel donated by the industry. The FCC said the processing would have been completed sooner but for defective software-the agency’s way of saying thank you for the “gift.”
…With that done, regulators have something else to worry about: fraudulent wireless license investment schemes. “Companies offering investment `opportunities’ seem to come out of the woodwork whenever the FCC has a wireless service to license,” said Gordon Coffman, co-chair of the FCC’s new Anti-Fraud Task Force. The FCC is working with the Federal Trade Commission and the Securities and Exchange Commission on the problem.
…Donna Sorkin, executive director of Self Help for Hard of Hearing People (SHHH), said the process recommended by industry to address interference to hearing aids from digital pocket telephones is too lengthy. She also said she would have liked to have seen in the industry plan “some clear statement indicating that the industry embraces the concept of universal design” of hearing-aid compatible phones that don’t depend on retrofits or external devices.
…Elizabeth Jacobson, deputy director for science at the Food and Drug Administration’s Center for Devices and Radiological Health, has proposed a meeting between the wireless telecommunications industry and hearing aid manufacturers to discuss short- and long-term solutions to hearing aid interference.
