WASHINGTON-As the end of the first session of the 105th Congress nears, the wireless telecom industry is left hanging with key policy issues unresolved.
In limbo are antenna siting moratoria, wireless privacy, digital wiretap funding and implementation, wireless cloning, encryption, regulatory reform, high-tech securities litigation reform, telecommunications antitrust oversight, international satellite reform and affirmative action.
“I think it’s Commerce appropriations and nominations and get out of town,” said Rob Cohen, a telecom consultant with National Strategies Inc. and a former lobbyist at the Personal Communications Industry Association.
Lawmakers would like to finish the session by Nov. 7 at the earliest and Nov. 14 at the latest.
At best, the Senate will have confirmed four Federal Communications Commission nominees, marking the end of Chairman Reed Hundt’s reign and the beginning of the Bill Kennard era.
There is an outside possibility Congress also could approve funding for the FCC and the National Telecommunications and Information Administration. Both agencies are running on stop-gap funding measures that end Nov. 7.
A best case scenario would have Congress sticking it to the multimillion-dollar-a-year cellular cloning business.
“If there is something with a shot, it’s the Kyl-McClollum bill,” said Thomas Wheeler, president of the Cellular Telecommunications Industry Association.
Sen. Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.) and Rep. Bill McCollum (R-Fla.) are clone busters counted on by industry to save it from massive theft.
Still, with Democrats butting heads with Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott (R-Miss.) to force a vote on campaign finance reform, even those bills with a chance of being passed could slip.
Many wireless-related policies will have to wait until next year before receiving congressional attention. Even then, it is unclear whether the industry will get help from Congress on a number of issues.
Siting pre-emption
No lawmaker has come forward to back antenna siting moratoria legislation, which had early interest from House telecommunications subcommittee Chairman Billy Tauzin (R-La.) and Senate Commerce Committee Chairman John McCain (R-Ariz.).
Oddly, there has been a backlash on the pre-emption issue, with Sens. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Texas) and Conrad Burns (R-Mont.) and Rep. Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.) surfacing as potential champions of bills to preserve state and local regulation of telecommunications system construction.
At the same time, however, there are related counter currents in Congress to exempt Internet commerce from local and state taxation and pre-empt local land use authority.
The wireless industry’s best chance appears to be at the Federal Communications Commission, which is considering a plan to ban antenna siting moratoria. However, that plan could be pulled back because there is a lack of congressional support.
CALEA
Elsewhere, the wireless industry and the FBI remain at loggerheads over the implementation of the 1994 digital wiretap bill, known formally as the Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act.
Besides differences over wireless network wiretap capacity and capability, the industry is fighting the FBI to move back the eligibility date for reimbursement to carriers that are required by law to modify their networks.
The House, which appropriated $50 million for CALEA in fiscal 1998, and the Senate, which did not approve any funding for digital wiretap implementation, were set last week to begin negotiating on a compromise Commerce appropriations bill.
By limiting such compensation to carriers that have deployed networks by Jan. 1, 1995, the personal communications services industry is effectively locked out.
As such, the wireless industry could end up subsidizing CALEA since the money the government would have paid to wireless carriers will be freed up to pay wireline carriers that request reimbursement for digital wiretap upgrades.
In addition, AT&T Wireless Services Inc. and other wireless carriers that have transitioned from analog to digital technology-constituting a major modification under CALEA-also could face $10,000-a-day fines for noncompliance pending a compromise between industry and the FBI or legislation in advance of the Oct. 25, 1994, effective date of the act.
Odds appear in favor of a date change for CALEA reimbursement eligibility.
Budgets
In the spending arena, the bill that could go to the floors of the House and Senate this week is expected to freeze the FCC’s budget at about $189 million.
Conferees, meanwhile, must reconcile the House-passed budget of $55.3 million and the Senate’s $63 million for NTIA in a Commerce spending measure that could be vetoed by Clinton because of unrelated provisions he dislikes.
Bucking the odds against corporate welfare allegations, the Overseas Private Investment Corp. won a two-year reauthorization from a House-Senate conference committee, including $60 million for loans and guarantees, and is on track to continue underwriting political risk insurance for wireless ventures in emerging markets.
Here’s the status and prospects of other policy initiatives that hang in the balance:
Securities reform
Reps. Rick White (R-Wash.) and Anna Eshoo (D-Calif.), authors of a bill to keep class-action shareholder lawsuits against high-tech firms out of state courts, appeared before the Senate Banking Committee last Wednesday. Sens. Phil Gramm (R-Texas) and Christopher Dodd (D-Conn.) are pushing companion legislation to close the loophole in 1995 legislation to protect high-tech firms from frivolous lawsuits while at the same time requiring full disclosure of risks to would-be investors.
This year’s out. Wireless firms, subject to the volatile market and hostile shareholders, cannot rest easy until next year when passage is likely.
Regulatory reform
Definitely not this year, and iffy in 1998. The bill of Sens. Fred Thompson (R-Tenn.) and Carl Levin (D-Mich.) to overlay a cost benefit and risk assessment regime on top of the current regulatory structure is controversial among environmentalists and occupational work-safety advocates. With the White House positioning Gore for a 2000 run at the presidency, the bill is veto bait in its current form.
Telecom competition
A lot of bellyaching, but forget about legislation anytime soon. Hearings have been held and House and Senate Judiciary panel members are monitoring the wave of consolidation among telecom giants since the Feb. 8, 1996, enactment of the telecom act. But lawmakers are skittish about tinkering with a telecom reform bill, which was years in the making.
However, the maverick McCain, brave and brazen enough to pursue campaign finance reform in the face of GOP dirty looks, might attempt to fine tune the telecom act after more hearings next year.
Encryption
A no-go this year. Possibly a bill in 1998.
If House telecommunications subcommittee Chairman Tauzin’s bill doesn’t prevent eavesdropping on House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) and ordinary people who talk over the airwaves, don’t look for help from Congress for any encryption bills. Too many chefs in the kitchen and, with Clinton and the FBI unwavering in their demand for decoding keys clashing head on with liberalized encryption export advocates, the debate could be dragged out to sea on the Clipper Ship.
Affirmative action
1997 is out. Nothing’s going anywhere until Gingrich’s gives the green light.
Rep. John Canady’s (R-Fla.) pet project gains momentum little by little, with a Judiciary Committee markup on the horizon and courts across the land phasing out race-based preferences. But Gingrich, fearful a one dimensional bill that appears mean-spirited might kill any chances of wooing middle-class blacks to the GOP, will keep the Canady measure in check until there is a kinder and gentler legislative package to fill the void.
If Canady triumphs, female and minority bidding credits for wireless licenses will have no chance of reinstatement at the FCC. Meanwhile, installment payments, blamed in part for the C-block PCS debt crisis yet still viewed as an important vehicle for allowing women and minorities to access evasive capital, are gone.
Int’l satellite reform
U.S. mobile satellite firms will have to delay celebrations to next year. A House bill sponsored by House Commerce Committee Chairman Thomas Bliley (R-Va.) and Rep. Edward Markey (D-Mass.) to force the International Mobile Satellite Organization and the International Telecommunication Satellite Organization to forgo unfair competitive perks and privileges is progressing. But it won’t make it to the House floor until sometime next year.
