WASHINGTON-Despite fiscal uncertainty and a daunting workload, Federal Communications Commission Chairman Reed Hundt has vowed to “meet or beat” congressional deadlines to implement the recently signed Telecommunications Act of 1996.
Calling the bill the “Invest in America Act of 1996,” Hundt said the commission’s timetable for carrying out the majority of some 38 bill-related mandates this year will be based on promoting competition and proliferating the public interest. Eighty new rulemakings commission-wide will be introduced between now and 1998, according to a preliminary implementation schedule released last week.
The commission will be laboring under reduced funding and short staffing. “We’re not tanned, we’re not rested, but we’re ready,” Hundt said. “We’re about $10 million short right now, but we will work with Congress to try and get more.” The latest continuing resolution, which bailed out unfunded government agencies last month, runs out in mid-March.
The Wireless Telecommunications Bureau will take the lead on 18 new rulemakings, the first of which-expedited licensing for private operational fixed microwave service-was adopted just hours after President Clinton signed the telecom bill.
According to Associate Bureau Chief Rosalind Allen, the division’s plate is full. The bureau plans to expand on past accomplishments, bring commercial mobile radio service carriers into the overall telecommunications picture, define the players and the rules, level the playing field and minimize entry barriers, and eliminate unnecessary regulations.
During the next two months, the bureau plans to institute notices of proposed rulemaking on Bell operating company joint marketing of CMRS (order due in July), BOC entry into interLATA CMRS (order due in July), mobile services access (order due in July) and market entry barriers (orders due in November 1996 and May 1997). Later this year, such issues as advanced telecom incentives, interconnection reciprocal compensation, infrastructure sharing and access by persons with disabilities will be tackled.
The bureau also will increase its regulatory coordination efforts with the Common Carrier Bureau on issues that involve all telecom carriers.
While FCC wireless managers have made it clear that some day-to-day activities may need to be curtailed to accommodate fast-tracking the new rulemaking period, auction activity will continue at its present clip along with ongoing microwave-relocation issues, public-safety notices, enhanced 911 dockets and refarming.
Hundt was adamant in dispelling any rumor that the FCC would reorganize itself again to accommodate a streamlined approach to rulemakings. “There will be no major reorganization in 1996,” he stated.
