WASHINGTON-In an effort to control paperwork and legal fees connected with compliance to certain Federal Communications Commission guidelines mandated by the Telecommunications Act of 1996, the Personal Communications Industry Association submitted a petition for forbearance that deals with six sections of FCC strictures.
Citing Section 10 of the act and in the interest of promoting faster competition in the marketplace, PCIA asked the commission to use its built-in authority to forbear from requiring the broadband personal communications services industry to adhere to the following mandates:
Section 201, which requires carriers to provide service upon reasonable request and imposes a general requirement that rates, terms and conditions of service be just and reasonable.
Section 202, which obligates carriers to avoid rates, terms and conditions that are unjustly or unreasonably discriminatory.
Mandatory resale.
Section 226, which requires common carriers to provide service information on competing providers and aggregators in case consumers do not wish to use their services.
International Section 214, which mandates prior FCC approval before negotiating to operate on foreign facilities and compliance with international tariffing.
Section 310(d), which currently prohibits carriers from a pro forma assignment of a license or a pro forma transfer of control without prior FCC approval.
“We look at this petition as the last play in a triple play,” commented Jay Kitchen, PCIA president. “The first was no state regulation of commercial mobile radio services carriers, the second was the implementation of auctions and the third is the removal of any lingering economic roadblocks.”
According to the petition, which was characterized as a “spring cleaning” by PCIA’s Broadband PCS Alliance, “unfettered marketplace competition will clearly do a better job of promoting consumer interests than perpetuating well-intended but ultimately mischievous regulatory intrusions.”
Prior to submitting the paperwork May 22, BPA members visited with FCC commissioners to promote and explain the request. Mark Golden, PCIA’s senior vice president of industry affairs, said the petition was received with approval and that “the 8th Floor is anxious to get this thing on public notice. They already were thinking about something like this.” Kitchen also plans to send a letter to FCC Chairman Reed Hundt regarding the matter.
“PCIA continues to work with the FCC to advance competition in the wireless industry,” Kitchen added. “The regulatory safeguards embedded in the sections for which the BPA is requesting forbearance relief are no longer relevant in the competitively charged world of wireless. In fact, they wind up impeding and not promoting healthy competition.”
David Gusky of the National Wireless Resellers Association “is not surprised” at PCIA’s petition, and he strongly disagrees with the group’s attitude toward resale.
“To argue that the wireless market is competitive because of PCS carriers is absurd. The C-block is falling apart, and NextWave (Telecom Inc. ) still is trying to get financing,” he told RCR. “The only PCS operators up and running are connected to cellular carriers, who historically have tried to stifle the resale market. A common carrier has a statutory obligation to offer service.”
